Samdhong Rinpoche on Government

I have always believed in Thoreau’s saying that “that government is best which governs the least.” Democracy is considered to be a form of self-rule but actually self-rule (or Swaraj) has not yet been established anywhere.

Spiritually, socially, and formatively—in all these three ways—I think that Gandhi’s concept of self-rule is absolutely necessary. But I don’t know whether it is achievable or not. At this moment in time no-one has yet achieved it, therefore we need a government to govern ourselves and among the various patterns of government the democratic system is considered to be better than all possible alternatives.

But I still suspect that, if there were a very enlightened philosopher-king, that might be better than the democratic system—but we have no model as yet; we have not experimented with this type of government in this generation.

Democracy in a small community or in small nations works more efficiently than democracies in large nations, and it is particularly difficult for the multi-party system of democracy to function in a righteous way. It may function effectively but it does not function in a righteous way, a positive way.

The ideal would be if each individual were self-supporting and self-disciplined—not breaking the law, not causing harm to others, not causing any problems in the society—then any form of so-called government would be unnecessary. Governments are necessary because people are unruly and they need somebody to check them, to establish law and order, and to ensure that people live in an harmonious way.

Now if those objectives are not achieved then the concept of government is just one of misuse of power or controlling the people or doing things against the wishes of the people. In such a case democracy is an hypocrisy; it is not yet a system of governance.

Democracy is very difficult to achieve. I always say that the definition of a true democracy is when there is no division between the rulers and the ruled. And that is no different from the Gandhian concept of Swaraj.