[Viewpoint] The Enemy of Democracy: Ruinous Populism

Napoleon, Who Despised the Masses Despite the Revolution
The Dangers of Populism and the Illusion of the People’s Virtue
Lessons from the French and Russian Revolutions on Democracy’s Limits

Napoleon, who became emperor thanks to the revolution, paradoxically despised the chaos, confusion, radical changes, and especially the masses who were the driving force of the revolution. The French Revolution of 1789 was a maelstrom of collective violence and retaliatory killings by crowds manipulated by a few agitators. Humans are the most tolerant yet the most ruthless species on Earth. During the five years of the republican government's reign of terror, more than 40,000 people were executed by guillotine, over 500,000 citizens perished, and more than 80% of them were commoners. Having witnessed such horrors, he preferred tolerance, equality before the law, rationalism, order, and authority over revolution. He distanced himself from the idealism of democratic republics or the notion of sovereignty residing in the will of the people (translated by Choi Pa-il, Napoleon World History).

The pioneers who advocated democracy in the 18th century claimed that the people were entirely good, pure, and noble, and that they possessed the intellectual capacity to know what was good and act accordingly. However, such claims are as absurd as the royal courtiers and nobles who believed their monarchs were the most virtuous, noble, and capable, and thus obeyed them. Just as kings and nobles often built 'interest cartels' to exploit commoners, many dictators emerged under democratic systems with popular support, and these dictators and their followers formed 'winning alliances' to enrich themselves.

The people are the sum of individual citizens, so if some citizens are unwise, the people as a whole will be the same. The clearest example is the 1917 Russian Bolshevik Revolution. At that time, 80% of Russia's population were peasants who demanded land. Toward the end of the Romanov dynasty, peasants, struggling to survive after the emancipation of serfs, attacked and expelled land managers and landlords, dismantling the landlord system. Lenin and Trotsky repeatedly implanted the simple and clear slogan "Bread, Peace, Land" into the minds of the masses. They promised "free confiscation and free distribution" of land and endorsed the peasant movement, gaining absolute support from peasants and workers to seize power. Land nationalization was implemented. This not only meant state ownership of all land but also the destruction of private ownership of the means of production, creating a communist state. Thus, the country of Anna Karenina, Dostoevsky, and Pushkin became a communist state. More than a hundred years have passed, but reclaiming confiscated land has become impossible forever. Even now, 90% of Russian land is owned by the state.

Ludwig von Mises said, "Democracy is a political system in which power can be changed according to the will of the people without violence." Democracy is the ability to achieve regime change through elections and parliamentary systems without conflict, violence, or bloodshed. We no longer need to shed blood for regime change. However, the enemy of democracy is ruinous populism. Populists tempt people to sacrifice the future to make the present more prosperous. We must discern who the populists are. We must not be deceived.

"The fact that dirty and ugly political leaders come to power is not due to the delusion of the people who had no choice but to elect such people, but simply because they chose figures that matched their level" (Arthur Schopenhauer, There is No Love, translated by Lee Dong-jin, p. 141).