Unalienable Rights, Consent of the Governed, and Middle Eastern Revolution

Democracy, or a Republic: What is the United States? "A Republic, if you can keep it," quipped Benjamin Franklin, shortly after the 1787 Constitutional Convention.

A Republic better safeguards unalienable rights along with consent of the governed, allowing citizens to exercise their right to participate in their government. A Republic includes checks and balances and counter-majoritarian institutions to protect the rights of all, including minorities susceptible to marginalization by majority vote.

How? By elected representatives who will lobby, represent, and vote on their views while maintaining the better interests of the nation and the state.

Why does a pure democracy fail to do this? A slim majority of citizens may deprive one group, or even a majority of their rights. A 50% plus 1 majority may just as well turn power over to one group or one strongman, who will drag a nation back to tyranny.

Also, a Republic codifies the rule of law not just for its citizens, but for its leaders.

A Republic ensures that laws and policy do not simply spring from populist exuberance or
easily-swayed public opinion.

This is the danger to keep in mind in the wake of the populist uprisings unfolding across the Middle East. Though two ruthless dictators have been removed from power, and a third is staving off rebels against his authority, these nations must rebuild their state policy with guarantees of civil rights, not just a broad franchise of "one man, one vote, one time".

The oppressed peoples of the Middle East need to concentrate on defining what the government is supposed to do for them: protect their rights, nothing more. The government is not supposed to provide them bread, provide them work, provide them special protections based on their race or religion. Diverse, divergent, and differing groups within these countries will have to settle on fundamental rights which belong to all people, to ensure protection of those rights at all costs, and design a government whose primary responsibility will be to determine, define, and defend those rights.

These necessary requirements are a tall order for any nation, but certainly for countries with no history of gradual liberty. The sweeping power of public communications bringing together different nations, identities, and culture may or may not expedite the process of factions finding common ground. The revolutions began with the people in the Middle East; it is their responsibility to see them through to a meaningful end.