According to Plato, the most harmful was democratic rule, the result of political degeneration and corrupt attacks on virtue and morality, by opening the range to many sides and stubborn and sectarian visions. Faced with a sinking ship, he recommended the appointment of experts on board, instead of appointing those who received the most votes so that their competence or incompetence would be revealed later. The success of the state lies in the fact that it has honest, just, blameless citizens, capable of ruling without any small effort; democracy conspired against it, he said.

Our democracy has not been able to consolidate since the restoration in 1979. The parties change; new constitutions and laws are established; the voter list is expanded, allowing the army, the police and young people aged 16 to vote; civil rights are recognized for peoples and nationalities; labor rights regardless of ethnicity or gender, among other positive measures; but it is not seen strengthened, but weak, reduced to the political-election ring. The executive and legislature did not promote agreements to find solutions to unemployment, inequality, health, insecurity. Two years of fruitless disputes that harm an increasingly impoverished nation. Impeachment and death on the cross are the result of misunderstood and misapplied democracy, in a state “hijacked” by corruption.

The government feels like a winner by sending MPs home. And those for shortening the presidential term…

The government feels like a winner by sending MPs home. And they, for shortening the presidential mandate and forcing early elections protected by the Constitution. Aristotle considered the constitution to be an order that determines who rules and how to rule. It allows our protagonists of this plot to apply again: for what? More alliances for petty interests, distributions, compromises, blackmail, in that distorted way of conducting politics?, with few exceptions. It also allows the figure of the crucifixion in the midst of a political trial; Items that need to be reformed. President Guillermo Lasso, a victim of his own mistakes and the mistakes of others, ended up in a painful maze and ordered the dissolution of the Assembly to avoid a dishonorable departure. He can pilot the “ship” for six months, which is longer than the 100 minutes promised to repair the earth. Let us hope that he will adapt his speeches to the national reality and that his decrees will no longer affect the popular sectors.

Despite its flaws, democracy is the fairest form of government. Its development requires respect for the independence of authority; constantly clean institutions; promote education and permanent improvement of citizens; have a clear and inviolable constitution; reject all demagoguery; Strengthen the social fabric to promote national development. In the upcoming elections, people must supply democracy with new blood. A different policy is urgently needed; honest, dedicated citizens, lovers of public service, not profit. “For those who really like money that is intended for industry or commerce, not for politics,” advises former president Pepe Mujica. I hope the next candidates will understand that. (OR)