In the Name of the People: Pseudo-Democracy and the Spoiling of Our World by Ivo Mosley

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In the Name of the People: Pseudo-Democracy and the Spoiling of Our World by Ivo Mosley

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Category: Politics and Society
Rating: 4/5
Reviewer: Gloria Nneoma Onwuneme
Reviewed by Gloria Nneoma Onwuneme
Summary: Mosley's criticism of the predominant political system of elective oligarchy. In In the Name of the People, he traces the events leading to its wrongful appropriation of the name democracy, and explains just why it was wrong in doing so.
Buy? Maybe Borrow? Yes
Pages: 172 Date: February 2013
Publisher: Imprint Academic
ISBN: 9781845402624

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On the spectrum ranging between democracy and totalitarianism, Ivo Mosley upholds that the system of elective oligarchy lies closer to the latter. And yet, he essentially says, Western democracy as we know it today is nothing but this form of representative government, excluding a large proportion of the people whose freedoms it claims to protect.

From the system’s erroneous rechristening as democracy, In the Name of the People takes the reader on a journey through the Western world's embracing of representative democracy, with prominent thinkers extolling it above what they had deemed its despot-engendering predecessor. The book presents claims that chosen representatives are from a much too small, privileged part of the population of whom they are supposedly spokespeople.

Almost all evils of the present day are attributed to the emergence, and subsequent establishment, of representative government – all from the disenfranchisement of the poor to the advantage-taking of ex-colonies have been spurred by the fact that people are given only a handful of paid professionals from which they must choose their leader. In Mosley's eyes, the main betrayal of elected representatives is the way in which they have given banks free reins to control money supply. Banks are in turn institutions whose sinister activities dovetail with corporations and governments' interest [in] commerce, capital and conquests. In addition to this, the export of this form of democracy comes across as more of a botched job, through the synchrony of the birth of new democracies and genocides in previously totalitarian countries, and through the introduction of multi-party electoral representation, leading to the formation of groups that merely struggle for money and benefits.

Though he makes a rather strong case for his thesis - that representative government lays some form of breeding-ground for several types of injustice - the comprehensive nature of Mosley's list of accusations makes me a bit wary of swallowing his ideas wholeheartedly, something I generally feel about various the-system-is-out-to-get-you-books.

A significant contention I did come to share with the author after reading the book, though, was that of representative democracy's etymological incongruence with the word democracy itself. Democratic freedom is, in Mosley's words absence of privilege, an untruth of elective government. Following a quotation of anarchist Proudhon's bleak take on what it is to be governed, Mosley states that we should do better in the name of freedom and democracy. He illuminates some paths which may lead us to the form of democracy which was enjoyed by the ancient Grecians. Citizens' assemblies are discussed, and examples of these are presented, key ones being Swiss cantons and New England townships. The creation of civic bodies of scrutiny is called for; ordinary people, and not just media, need to work to ensure that suspicious activity is brought to light, and that government is all about working for the people. The objections to the return of the self-government-aspect of democracy - that masses are much too inept and/or disinterested to be so directly involved in leadership - are dismissed by Mosley, who points to the use of these unskilled people in the judicial system, as jurors.

Ivo Mosley is not the sole advocate against representative government; the beginning of his book holds quite a few quotations of fellow voices, including all from Aristotle to the 4th US President James Madison. All throughout, he references the works of more recent thinkers as well. Though Mosley’s views seem to be well-backed, I am not so convinced that perfect democracy would preclude the vices of present day governments, nor am I sure that it is representative government in itself, and not the ineliminable property of greed, that is the root of the issues highlighted in the book. Nevertheless, In the Name of the People makes for a potential eye-opener for readers, and gives one something to think about.

For an example warranting Mosley’s criticism of representative government, do read A Very British Revolution: The Expenses Scandal and How to Save Our Democracy by Martin Bell. I recommend Roger Osborne’s Of the People, By the People: A New History of Democracy for someone who simply wants to learn about democracy’s course through time.

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Buy In the Name of the People: Pseudo-Democracy and the Spoiling of Our World by Ivo Mosley at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy In the Name of the People: Pseudo-Democracy and the Spoiling of Our World by Ivo Mosley at Amazon.com.

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