Political democracy and economic democracy are the two sides of the same coin. If one of the two is missing, individual freedom and that of society as a whole would be severely limited and there would therefore be no full rule of law.
Political democracy goes beyond elections. As Luis Rubio pointed out yesterday in his article “Democracia a la mexicana” published in the Reforma newspaper, democracy “has to do with citizen rights, justice, freedom of expression, checks and balances for the exercise of power and limits to potential abuse by rulers”.
In this way, political democracy, both in what refers to access to power through a system of free and fair elections and to the exercise of power having already accessed it, requires a set of clear, transparent, efficient rules, for all known and with the certainty that they will not be modified arbitrarily from power itself. It also requires that in the exercise of power, with strong counterweights, it is restricted only to what is allowed in the legal framework, respecting at all times individual freedoms and rights such as those of association, expression of ideas , of thought and religious. This is part, only a part, of an integral rule of law.
The other part is made up of economic democracy, its basic pillar being the efficient definition, within the legal framework, of private property rights, recognizing that every individual has the right to possess resources and assets as an extension of the right to life; the right to property is, therefore, a natural right and not a concession.
Having efficiently defined private property rights, individuals can, consequently, exercise the two rights that derive from the ownership of resources. The first is the right for each person to use the resources of their property as best suits them, the only limitation being the exercise of this freedom not to violate the property rights of third parties for which homicide, robbery, rape, fraud, etc. must be prohibited in the legal framework, subject to being penalized whoever commits this type of crime.
The second is the right that each individual has to freely transfer the right of ownership of a resource to a third party in an entirely voluntary transaction and with freely agreed terms of exchange. The latter requires that there be equal opportunities and freedom of access to all markets, be they goods, services or factors of production. This implies that markets have to operate in competition, being the government’s role to minimize market access barriers and prosecute and penalize any anti-competitive practice, be it private or governmental. Greater options to freely choose which goods to consume and from whom to purchase them leads to a higher level of individual and social well-being.
An additional element of economic democracy is the existence of an independent, impartial, efficient and expeditious judiciary that protects and guarantees private property rights against acts of third parties that violate them, including acts of government since, with respect to the latter , the government cannot interfere in the private sphere other than to enforce the laws in force. Likewise, it is the role of the judiciary to guarantee compliance with the contracts and award the guarantees established therein in the event of non-compliance by any of the parties.
The international evidence is compelling: countries where the rule of law is more vigorous, where political democracy and economic democracy exist simultaneously, are also those with the highest level of economic and social progress.
In Mexico we are very far from living under an upright rule of law, but instead of strengthening it, President López has the explicit purpose of weakening political democracy by arbitrarily changing electoral laws and institutions, his “Plan B”. If he succeeded, he would certainly follow with his favorite corcholata, less economic democracy and a setback in the level of economic development, an impoverishment of the population. Defending freedom and the rule of law and aspiring to a more prosperous future necessarily involves defending political democracy from the tyrannical attacks of the president. Pressing society and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation asserting its independence have the last word because what is at stake is freedom.
Twitter: @econoclasta
