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National Observer Home >No. 56 - Autumn 2003 >Book Reviews

Book Review: Democracy: the God That Failed

A common aphorism is that democracy is a poorsystem of government, except when compared with other systems.There is some merit in this assessment, but not all alternativesystems (including some systems of semi-democracy or modifieddemocracy) have been tried; and in any event, it is important toassess common faults in democracies and to attempt to improve theirpractical operation.

InDemocracy: The God that Failed theauthor (whose doctorate was obtained in Germany and who is a SeniorFellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute) examines moderndemocracies in the light of various evident failures:

"Since the late 1960s or early 1970s, real wageincomes in the United States and in Western Europe have stagnatedor even fallen. In Western Europe in particular, unemployment rateshave edged steadily upwards and are currently exceeding ten percent. The public debt has risen everywhere to astronomic heights,in many case exceeding a country's annual Gross DomesticProduct. Similarly, the social security systems everywhere are onor near the verge of bankruptcy . . . Moreover, throughout theWestern hemisphere national, ethnic and cultural divisiveness,separation and secessionism are on the rise . . . In the UnitedStates, less than a century of full-blown democracy has resulted insteadily increasing moral degeneration, family and socialdisintegration, and cultural decay in the form of continuallyrising rates of divorce, illegitimacy, abortion and crime. As aresult of an ever-expanding list of non-discrimination -‘affirmative action’ - laws andnon-discriminatory, multicultural, egalitarian immigrationpolicies, every nook and cranny of American society is affected bygovernment management and forced integration; accordingly, socialstrife and racial ethnic and moral-cultural tension and hostilityhave increased dramatically."

Dr. Hoppe considers especially the lack ofbalancing factors in democracies. Various pressure groups seekcontinually increased government expenditures and governmentregulations. In the absence of sufficient counter-pressures,government regulations and government expenditures increase moreand more, and consequently so does the burden of taxation. So,"Every detail of private life, property, trade and contract isregulated by ever higher mountains of paper laws (legislation). Inthe name of social, public or national security our caretakers‘protect’ us from global warming and cooling and theextinction of animals and plants, from husbands and wives, parentsand employers, poverty, disease, disaster, ignorance, prejudice,racism, sexism, homophobia and countless other public enemies anddangers."

In this context Dr. Hoppe discusses possibleways of over-coming these difficulties, and he observes that a casefor secession can be made, that is, "a shifting of control over thenationalised wealth from a larger, central government to a smaller,regional one". He also advises that "all existing wage and pricecontrols, all property regulations and licensing requirements, andall import and export restrictions should be immediately abolishedand complete freedom of contract, occupation, trade and migrationintroduced". He sees this as a step towards the dismantling ofgovernment.

Democracy: The God that Failed isthought-provoking, and its author's views on many of theproblems today encountered by the liberal democracies merit seriousconsideration. Their solution is not an easy matter. Butever-increasing government controls and government expendituresmust be addressed, or nothing short of a collapse of sustainablesociety will ensue.

R.M. Pearce

National ObserverNo. 56 - Autumn 2003