Cohesion

louth | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Saturday February 25, 2006 16:17 by Sean Crudden - impero sean.crudden at iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 087 9739945

Democracy or Dictatorship?

Are there only the two opposites which, in abstract terms, define all possible approaches to political development? Are we sleepwalking from democratic ideals into a colourless and unsvoury dictatorship?

Consideration is being given in the boardrooms of the Partnerships and Louth LEADER to local development and social inclusion programs. The keyword is “cohesion” and the impetus seems to be towards amalgamations and “integration.”

This is no surprise because in the political sphere in Ireland today the ruling idea seems to be centralisation of power. An example of this is The Health Services Executive. Some of us have experienced the aggregated way of doing things - for instance under Vocational Education Committees. In other places - in the same spirit - I have previously pointed toward what may not be dictatorial tendencies in psychiatry and education. But they are certainly, at the very least, prescriptive.

It seems to me that for true development to take place the opposite attitude is required. Decentralisation and real democracy and a sense of place are the more obvious routes to social and political development in the regions. The cornerstone of a living community is the individual and individual freedom and responsibility. The growing push towards integration and command politics and economics (which was the modus operandi of the old Soviet Union) seems to me to militate against and crush fragile but important developmental freedoms.