Faith in Democracy?

An interesting discussion has started but has yet to come to fruition over at MMF. The other day Hanno asked “What does it mean to say "I have faith in democracy"?” What a terribly interesting and convoluted question to ask. It really is about as loaded as they come. It’s got all the fun ingredients that can lead to a good knock-down-drag-out argument. We’ve got religious undertones, politics, patriotism, political philosophy, ambiguity, and did I mention religion? But, honestly, what does a claim like that mean? Well, Hanno, here’s my shot at it.

We’ve got to start with faith, because the entire question hinges on this ultra-ambiguous little jewel. The word is loaded with religious connotations but has a wide secular usage as well. It doesn’t just play in one game, so to speak.

What is secular faith? In many instances, it’s an inductive argument. “I have faith that Katy will be on time to pick me up tomorrow.” In saying this, there’s no appeal to some higher reason, some higher being or power. I’m simply stating that, “hey, she hasn’t been late before, so I believe she’ll be on time tomorrow.” But secular faith also comes in degrees…it becomes more ambiguous than an appeal to induction. It can signify a character judgment or an assessment of the strength of a relationship. To tell a friend making a difficult decision, “I have faith that you’ll do the right thing,” is, once again, not an appeal to a higher power. It is, however, different in some meaningful way from a simple induction. I’m not stating the belief that my friend has made the right decision in every instance in the past, maybe not even in a majority of situations. The belief I’m stating is more along the lines of a discernment of my friend’s moral fiber…or if the decision is in regards to me, a judgment about the state and import of our relationship. It’s an appeal to a less concrete notion of induction. This secular faith relies more on “feelings” and less on evidence, but it still remains in the secular realm. In either of these cases, or those that lie between, faith is a judgment call on the part of the believer. It is a willful determination to hold a belief, but one that is based on prior experience, evidence, and intellect.

Religious faith…this is not an entirely different construction of belief, but one with a wholly disparate ground. It is still an act of the will choosing to hold a belief about the world…a belief based not in evidence, prior experience, or intellectual rigor, but in the grace of God. Aquinas put it something like (and this is a loose paraphrase not a quote) an ascent of the will to belief brought on by the grace of God. In other words, I have faith in or about something not because I make a judgment but because I make a choice that God’s grace has influenced (or allowed) me to make. This religious connotation, this faith without evidence, is the heaviest baggage that the term is forced to carry. Even in the most mundane of secular utterances of “faith,” one cannot help but wonder about the evidence held by or intellectual prowess of the speaker. That is the religious undertone that makes many cringe when someone starts a sentence with “I have faith…”

So lets see if we can bring this back around. What does it mean to say, “I have faith in democracy?” Well, it means that I believe in the democratic system of government. It means that I have at least a general understanding of out how it works and that I agree with its principals and foundations. It means that I have seen it bring about good results in the past and induce that it should do so in the future. It means that I have made a judgment call based on the evidence presented me thus far, and think that it’s the best choice we’ve come up with to date. But…if I say that I have faith in it, you might question whether I’m making this judgment or just blindly following along (with or without the grace of God…or Goddess), but now we understand why.

Now, of course, there are other ways to approach the question of faith in democracy:

Does saying I have faith in democracy mean that I believe it will arrive at the best outcome in every occasion?

Does saying I have faith in democracy mean that I believe in our government actors and their ability to reach a good outcome within the framework of the system?

Does saying I have faith in democracy mean that I believe we as voters make the best, most informed decisions about who we put in the positions within the framework?

But these are all questions for another day, as it’s time for me to get some sleep.