The word democracy as oh so many modern terms has its origin in the Greek language. It comes from the words demos and krato. They more or less mean "the people" and "hold" what is meant is that they hold the political power, that's why it is often translated as "rule" instead of "hold". ***
The meaning of democracy is thus that the people hold the power. NOT THE GOVERNMENT. The modern democracy has developed based on this idea but it was found that it is too difficult, due to size, to actually have every person in a population have a say in political affairs. Back in ancient Greece, that was more feasible as the city states were rather tiny compared to today's situations.
The result then was the indirect democracy which we have in all of western society today: We elect representatives, who act on our behalf.
Those representatives (i.e. politicians) are nothing but our voices. They are not to have any own agendas, any own reasons, any own wishes, wants, desires or ideas. They are just there to act on our behalf the best they can.
Now it doesn't take a smart man to realize that this is extremely idealistic and unrealistic but the way the system was devised originally was one that put enough pressure on the politicians so they wouldn't go ahead and follow their own interests, at least not primarily. If they went too far off course and didn't actually act in the interest of the people who elected them, they would loose all the power that was previously vested in them and would be replaced.
This is how modern democracy continued to be a democracy. Even though the ship was not steered by the people themselves, they did hold the power to decide who steers the ship.
And this political power that we the people hold, we ALWAYS hold, not only every 4 years! If everything goes normal, we vote every 4 years. If the people we elected steer the ship maybe not perfectly, but well enough so we all can live with it, we vote every 4 years. But if they mess up too much, then they can be replaced any time, not only after 4 years. If need be, they can even be replaced by force, this decision is not up to them, it is up to the people, because they are supposed to hold the power.
Therefore the statement is absolutely correct that governments have to fear the people, not the other way around. It might be wise to watch V for Vendetta. It explains this particular topic quite well in a modern, understandable setting.
If the government messes up badly during it's 4 years of power, then it should not expect to be able to just continue business as usual. It should expect to loose its power. This should serve as a motivator to not mess up and always act in the best interest of the people. Another motivator (and here enter the French) should be that if they not only mess up but clearly betray, harm and sacrifice the people they were elected to represent, then they should fear the punishment by those who elected them. Otherwise you can enter office saying "ok, I just make my dealz with that lobbiez, 4 yrs iz more than enuff timez to get filthy rich, afterwards they can have their political power back".
You won't do that if the people show you that they are fully capable of getting that old rusty guillotine out of the basement.
But this is exactly what politicians tend to forget these days. And they have to be reminded of it once in a while.
The French think the time to remind them who actually wears the pants in this relationship is now. I for one agree.
I disagree on how they remind them, yet I never had to fight for anything in my life. But I am certainly glad someone is doing it. Because if I look at myself in the mirror and look around myself, I only see a bunch of fed, warm and fuzzy pussies that have more or less nothing to worry about (in terms of basic human needs) and thus won#t lift their ass up the couch.
So yeah, I said it. We need the French and should all be thankful for their rioting.
*** on a sidenote: In modern Greek, the government is often referred to as the "kratos" which would mean "the one that holds the power", meant is of course the political power. This quite nicely shows how the thinking of the people in modern democracies has changed. In the US, you call your president the most powerful man in the world. In Greece they call the government "the one that holds the power". Both are just wrong.
Neither one holds ****, they have no power. They are only allowed to weild OUR power under OUR close supervision. The only thing lacking these days is that supervision, that many people *looks up* tend to forgive we have the OBLIGATION to carry out.
But both terms damn well describe the reality of modern democracy...
