The Will of the People

The theoretical basis of republican government is that the will of the people is always right and therefore if the government is subject to the will of the people the government will make the right decision. There is a relevant quote in the TV show The West Wing in which a pollster says, “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” However we know this is not true because all people are flawed and therefore even their collective voice can be erroneous from time to time. Thus in absolute terms the will of the people will not always be the morally correct action. However, absent any other decision making mechanism other than the capricious will of a few leaders, the will of the people provides the best possible basis for a nation’s actions.
The people of a nation are ultimately going to be effected by any foreign policy decisions their leaders make and then, in turn, the leader must acquiesce to the will of the people in order to stay in power. Even in nations that are not democratic this happens because the leader can be overthrown if he does not have the support of his citizens. While the people of a country might not be directly affected by their nation’s foreign policy decisions they will be affected eventually and thus their input is important. This is not to say, however, that policy makers should not be concerned with the opinions of those with whom they interact globally since their attitude may come back to haunt the nation later. I think the only feasible alternative to national policy based on the will of the people is the will of one individual, a dictator, or a few very powerful individuals. This situation only breads corruption since a few people are forcing their will not only upon people in foreign countries but also the vast majority of those in their country. Since the people will be most affected by the action taken their will should be considered above all else in policy making decisions.
The United States is somewhere in between these two situations because our government is not a democracy, it is a republic. The citizens themselves do not make the national policy decisions but rather choose the leaders who make the decisions. Therefore the will of the people is not always directly followed. I guess you could say that things get “lost in translation” from the people to their leaders. The leader assumes that x is what the people want because they elected him and then he sets out to achieve it even if the people do not really support it. Perhaps, however, the leader substitutes his will for the will of the people and uses the people as a cover. The idea behind the republican form of government of the United States is that the nation is too large for the people to all individually vote on policy decisions and therefore we elected representatives to do the voting for us. Since absolute democracy is not achievable in a large nation like the United States we must settle for the next best alternative, a republic in which sometimes our leaders get it right and sometimes they get it wrong. The will of the people is, however, a sufficient basis for foreign policy decisions even though it is not always listened to and implemented.
Erica Peterson