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What can I hope for (from politics)? 1115
Yet in the language of political theory, this all means that the Greens
would favour “the freedom of the ancients”, i.e., the sharing of public
power, over the modern safeguards of the undisturbedness of individual
decisions. ‘The danger arising from this is long-known and obvious: the
abuse of power by a democratically elected leader. József Eötvös"
prophetic words are timelier today than when he composed them: “...
If freedom consists of the limitlessness of power, which creates laws in
the name of the people and rules directly through their majority... if,
therefore, those who acquire the majority for a time through whatever
means, even terrorism, have control over the full force of the state: in
this case, such a powerful reason stands in favour of performing this
experiment that surely it will not fail to happen.”!°° Eötvös would today
most likely say that it is not fascist, communist, paternalist or populist
ideologies that are responsible for the development of autocratic systems,
but rather the principle of popular sovereignty itself. From this it follows
directly that the leader of the people, appealing to the will of the
majority, can abuse his power at the head of “a state organised for
absolutism” more than any previous ruler. The greatest danger to
democracy today is still democracy, just as in Plato’s time. Therefore,
the representatives of ecological politics must emphasise that when they
talk of representative democracy, they do not have in mind the usual
reign of terror exercised in the name of the public will, a kind of green
dictatorship — which is what their opponents accuse them of from time
to time. Quite the contrary. Beyond the level of a wish, how can this be
possible? The classical liberal answer, “the essence of freedom according
to English concepts”, which Edtvés analyses in his above-mentioned
work, is nuanced and complex. It contains much more than merely the
political guarantees of individual freedom stated as a fundamental
principle.
- It shows that decentralisation and the limitation of the sphere of
public authority do not weaken the state but are rather what guarantee
of its stability and operability.
- He supports the power of local councils in all issues that do not
affect everyone.
- He sees the freedom of individuals to form communities as the
antidote to the dangerous selfishness of the local councils. The sense of
16 József Eötvös: Influence of the Ruling Ideas of the 19th century on the State. Magyar
Helikon, 1981, 1. köt. p.139.