What Israelis Would Tell Arabs About Democracy: You Know Best...

Israeli Knesset (house of representatives) -- New Arab Democracies: you need more than a pretty house to be a democratic state. (from Wikipedia / Hebrew edition)

What would you tell all the citizens of a country who just elected a democratic government? What would be the best and simplest pieces of advice? I have been thinking about this while Arab protesters (or is it revolutionaries) have been trying to remove despot rulers. Once you have a democratically elected government, how do you live like an effective citizen? What will make democracy in daily life better than a dictator run government? Probably every free state leader is searching for this answer right now. How can you teach a billion people to "just do it" democracy? (taking a phrase from a Nike commercial) Once the Arab states adopt democracy, this will be the largest change in the world's social structure in probably 200 years, maybe ever. So while the eastern European states may think that their shift from communism to democracy was a big event, the one going on now may overshadow that wave of change.

You Know Better Than Your Government: ? !

The one thing that you hear in Israel is criticism AND improvement on government policy. In a democracy everyone has to give his point of view. But that does not mean protesting with signs on the street, or screaming at a house of representative in session, or complaining by mail to government clerks. Just annoying people is not useful and actually makes democracy less effective. I am talking about a useful suggestion if it is keeping the streets clean from dog poop (shit). As the problem was in Tel Aviv a few years ago. All the way to how medical service is organized and funded. Government by the people means exactly that. Each person has to improve and contribute to their government's operation. If you lived under a dictator for a long time, in the Arab countries case forever, than this idea is the hardest to grasp. Some requests by citizens are not going to be popular. The government is going to set rules (i.e. you have to clean up after your dog). Then the government is going to start sending out people to enforce the new regulation. Then the government is going to start punishing and fining people (i.e. it will cost you $20 for every poop we find). Then the people are going to fight back and abuse, curse and even hit regulators that come to punish dog poop violators. You get the point. Sometimes democratic government is not good for everyone, it is suppose to be good for the majority. But the operative word here is "suppose". That does not happen every time. But most of the time it does.

With big policy decisions like healthcare and taxes the people need to be more organized and much more convincing. It is hard to show elected representatives that healthcare should be subsidized or that taxes should be lowered. It is even harder to show them how to improve these big issues. But without a voice from the people, nothing will change. In Israel there was a high tax on what was deemed "luxury items". Electronic products like TVs and home entertainment products were taxed at up to 100%. This was a taxation law enforced until 2006. It was probably started in the 1950s when home stereos were really luxury items. But the law stood as if time stopped for probably more than forty years. Everyone knew it was ridiculous, so everyone who went out on a trip out of Israel brought something with him. People would hide little speakers in their luggage. Many people had a DVD player or a small TV (in their original package) when they arrived at the airport. The law was ridiculous. Government taxing officials said that if the tax was lowered the state would lose money and that would be bad for everyone. What's wrong with paying twice as much for a nice home stereo? the reasoning went. You want a nice thing, you should be willing to pay for it. That all sounded "LOGICAL" but it was ridiculous. When the government lowered the tax by 50% to 80% almost nothing happened. No big sales at the electronic shops. No big statements in the Knesset (house of representatives) on losses in taxes. The only thing that changed is the number of people with big boxes bringing by themselves DVD players and TVs. It just quietly stopped. Actually, today the market is flooded with cheap electronic products.

But what about really important government decisions like how much to spend on security (military) versus medicine (cancer drugs)? This is the age old question government leaders have been asking. In classic economics of the 17th century the English wondered what to make and sell: "guns or butter". Guns are good when you need to defend your country. Butter is good when you want to make the people happy. You can't eat guns and you can defend with butter. But the question of what the people really need, not just want, when it comes to what the tax money should be spent. In Israel the military spending was always a "sacred cow". You don't mess with the security of the country no matter what. Recently there was the case of the American F35 stealth fighter deal. Israeli military really wanted this fighter. But when it came to security with the current situation, it was hard to justify US$ 100 million per plane. For the first time in a long time, this question was brought up. The old military system of asking and getting was not really working that well. What are you going to tell thousands of cancer patients who can't get expensive medicine if you spend the money on military planes? Are these planes going to stop Palestinian suicide bombers? This is one issue that many people really understood. It took lots of meetings with government officials and lots of private citizens to explain to government the importance of medicine over military. I am sure that many people did not want to hear this. Change is hard, and big change may be the hardest thing. But there is no way of holding it back. I will write more about changes that democratically elected governments have to go through. Sometimes changes that may risk their own existence. Something that most people just don't know how to deal with.