Democracy places limits on those in power. It reduces the scope for recourse to violence. It forbids the abuse of state power against individuals and against sub-sections of society. It reduces inequalities in wealth and power and seeks to provide equality of access to the law and equality of political participation.
A democratic society demands that its members limit the pursuit of their self-interest to the extent that the rights of their fellow citizens require it. It require that citizens treat each other with the respect due them as autonomous individuals with the right to pursue their life as they see fit. And it requires a commitment to the common good. In return for complying with these demands, democracy produces the public goods that people of all nations have struggled for centuries to achieve, namely peace, justice, freedom, equality, and community.
For many people these demands are difficult to comply with. For people with dangerous personality disorders, they are demands which they are psychologically incapable of submitting to. Moreover, the public goods which democracy produces are experienced by them as the antithesis of the type of the society they desire.
Psychopaths lack the capacity to react to other people`s feelings with feelings of their own, and so have a terrifying ability to treat people without conscience. They view other people as things to be manipulated and exploited rather than as fellow citizens whose rights are to be respected. Their disorder leaves them prone to acts of violence, criminality, and corruption.
People with narcissistic personality disorder have minds structured to convince them of their own superiority. They are fixated on adulation, authority, and power. Their disorder is such that they are psychologically incapable of seeing others as equals. Authoritarian, envious, amoral, and contemptuous of others, they are likely to react to anyone who challenges them with aggression. Their sense of entitlement means that they view the exploitation of others as their natural right.
People with paranoid personality disorder have their minds frozen in a perpetual state of emergency. They can perceive others only as a threat and continually search for vulnerable scapegoats on whom to focus their anxiety. Their constant suspiciousness and distrust of others acts as an acid that dissolves meaningful social relationships.
Their combative and suspicious nature often elicits a hostile response in others, leading to conflict and confusion. In situations of civil unrest, they play a central role in fomenting hatred against enemies, real and imagined, and have the energy and passion to organize and mobilize others to participate in acts of mass oppression.
People with the disorders are unable to accept the constraints of living within a democratic society. The language of democracy – fairness, equality, autonomy, freedom og conscience, freedom of thought, freedom for every individual to find meaning in life, the right to dignity, and equality of social relationships – is a language which is utterly incomprehensible to them.
People with these disorders struggle to live within democracy`s moral strictures and, should the opportunity arise, they will gladly tear down the constraints which democracy imposes on them.
If we are to protect the public goods which democracy provides, we must limit the influence of psychopaths and people with narcissistic and paranoid personality disorders. Unfortunately, however, the conditions which empower people with these disorders are endemic in societies around the world.
Levels of global poverty are such that in many countries the rule of law for the majority of citizens is no more than a cruel promise. In the United States and Europe, major political and economic institutions have for decades now fostered a culture of selfish individualism and greed. Religion too has proven itself to be a woefully inadequate guide for individual and collective morality. Selective quotation from the sacred texts of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism continues to cause a spiral of hatred, war, and suffering.
Such context matters not only because it empowers the minority with dangerous personality disorders, it matters because context plays a decisive role in influencing the behavior of the normal majority. As we have seen, human nature, for the majority of human beings, is an extremely malleable thing. For most of us, our beliefs and behaviors vary depending on the circumstances in which we have been brought up and the context within which we live.
This basic fact means that, as psychologist Steve Pinker describes it, human nature comprises a mix of both inner demons and better angels. Motives like predation, dominance, competition, and vengeance which impel us to violence and greed, exists alongside motives like compassion, cooperation, fairness, self-control, and reason that, under the right circumstances, impel us toward peace, reciprocity, and other-regarding altruism.
If the conditions which favor our better angels prevail, violence and excessive greed are low. If conditions which favor fear, insecurity, and intolerance hold sway, our inner demons win out and violence and greed increase.
This psychological malleability of the majority of humanity, allied with the fixed malevolent nature of the minority with dangerous personality disorders, means that this minority can gain enormous influence over the majority when circumstances allow, not least during periods of instability, societal crises, and uncertainty.
Those conditions which constrain the worst aspects of human nature aret hose which democratic systems seek to achieve: fair and effective application of rule of law, just and transparent government, an absence of poverty and destitution, a greater tolerance and diversity. There is therefore a crucial link between human behavior and effective democracy.
The more progress we make toward truly democratic societies, the more likely we will be to behave with humanity toward one another. The further we move form democracy`s ideals, the more intolerant and aggressive we become. Our future depends crucially on us recognizing this basic psychological fact about ourselves and acting upon it.
One psychologist who has stressed the role that democracy plays as a defense against those with psychological disorders is psychoanalyst and leadership expert Manfred Kets de Vries. He writes that benevolent dictatorship is a theoretical possibility but add:
Rule by a solitary leader typically ends in servile obedience to authority and abuse of human rights. In contrast, democracy (though flawed) safeguards human dignity, protects individual freedom, assures free choice, and gives people a voice in decisions that affect their destiny, allowing them to work for a better future for their children. Humankind`s desire for justice and fair play makes democracy possible. Humankind`s capacity for injustice makes democracy necessary.
To save the next generation from the human misery that would accompany the demise of democracy, Kets de Vries urges us to do everything in our power to prevent such a situation from ever again coming to pass.
The system of democracy which has been built over centuries by successive generations can best be seen as a system of institutions and practices, based on fundamental moral principles, which serve to protect societies from a psychologically disordered minority, and form our own worst natures.
The history of democracy, has been a history of human moral and spiritual development. While equating democracy with morality may sound arrogant or imperialistic to some, from the view point of the victims of history`s tyrants, and the many who still suffer under tyranny, it will simply appear as a self-evident fact.»”
