EQUALITY

AND
DEMOCRACY
INTRODUCTION
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EQUALITY AND
DEMOCRACY
INTRODUCTION
For centuries now, the most persistent factor seen in all of
evolution of civilization is equality and freedom to choose,
write, speak or take an action for the betterment of the

EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

civilization. In the modern world, if you ask a person about the
idea of equality, if it is present in the current system, one is
likely to get one of the 2 answers. One is that although equality
isn‟t at its full potential or it isn‟t what it is dreamt to be yet, it is
progressing and is much better compared to what used to be in
the past. The other answer would be that equality is just a
fantasy in the modern world, and the world in fact doesn‟t
provide equality.
To be accurate, neither of the answers are what exists or works
in the current world. The word equality and its desire to be
implemented throughout everywhere comes from the condition
that the work done is judged fairly and the opportunities created
are distributed evenly throughout the masses, and leave the
chances of success higher to the person who works harder and
smarter. That is the utopian civilization that is popular among
the individuals since the era of revolutions and is been passed
down to further generations in a misinterpreted manner. 1
 As the one of the renowned philosopher Jules Henri states, “To doubt
everything or believe everything, these two are equally convenient
options. With either we dispense with the need for reflection”.
Throughout history since the Neolithic age, there has been a stable
system of power which has never once changed. There have been 3 kinds
of people in the world. The high, the middle, and the low. These have
been subdivided and have had countless different names, and the attitude
of one group towards the others has varied throughout time, but the
structure itself has never ceased to exist or change. In the current world,
we have named them the richer, the middle class and the poor. The aims
of these groups are quite simple and consistent throughout history. The
EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

high wants to stay where they are, the middle wants to acquire the
position of the high, and the low, when they aim, they aim based on the
morale, that they are being out labored by the two higher groups, and
they are unable to acquire any knowledge outside their daily lives due to
the same. So the low aim for justice, equality throughout all the groups.
For long periods, the high manages to safeguard their position, but sooner
or later, they collapse either due to the inability to govern, or they lose
belief in the power system for a brief time, and think about the morals
constructed by the low. They are then overthrown by the middle who
enlists the low on their side promising equality and justice. Then after
acquiring the high, the low are thrown back to their menial labor, and
revolting this, a new middle group is created with people from both sides
(The middle and The Low). Thus the cycle never ceases to exist.
Socialism, a theory which appeared in the early twentieth century was the
most recent link in this cycle and was still deeply infected by the
utopianism of the past ages.

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Let us consider India. Pre independence, the mass were governed by the
rulers, the aristocrats, the lawyers. The middle consisted of the noble and
other ministers, and the low consisted of mass people. We can see the
cycle of power in effect, and post-independence, one doubts very less if
the same exists even in the current world. Let us get back to one of the 2
answers we anticipated when asked about equality. One could answer
that equality is just a fantasy. Equality after every revolution does exist,
but only among the group of the low. This can be further understood by
analyzing the presence of the power cycle, post-independence. When
India acquired independence, it had two options. One was to go back to
„the king ruled provinces „but with a united power of the high. The other

EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

option was to follow the world trend of socialism and democracy. When
you ask yourself which you would choose among the 2, you would
choose the latter, with reason that it provides equality and liberty and the
power to people. Thus you end with first answer we anticipated to
receive when asked about equality in the modern world. But does that
mean that a country with democracy has ended the harsh injustice caused
by the ancient power of cycle? .The answer is NO. In general the modern
trend of democracy and socialism was popular due to the reason that it
attracted people with ideas of equality, but was more profoundly formed
in order to better serve the high economically. Although the low were
guaranteed more participation in the higher national positions, and better
incomes and more power, the high were the most benefitted. In general,
the recognition and distinguishing factor had reduced, for the high to
operate with more safety. Economically, democracy guaranteed the
abolishment of the gold standard which was one of the prominent
problems even from the roman period.
The gold standard was the common problem shared by all 3 groups after
the French revolution. To explain the gold standard, it is simply the ratio
of value assigned to currency through gold. If you notice the currency 3
note carefully, you can notice “I promise to pay the bearer the sum of
(the value of the note)” and signed by the government‟s governor. This is
 known as the fiat system which was introduced to be effective only after
democracy was adopted by most of the nations after revolution. To
understand better, why democracy was the trend and popularized
throughout the world, we will have to know about the biggest economic
problem that humans faced in the history of civilization. One might argue
that The Great Depression was the biggest economic crisis, but the gold
standard is the primary reason it suffered worse than anticipated.

THE HISTORY OF GOLD STANDARD AND THE RISE OF

EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

DEMORCRACY.

Democracy as seen on the surface level was not implemented solely for
the sake of the equality, justice, and freedom, but also mainly for the
stability of operating economy of the high. Gold was first considered
precious by the Egyptians as they thought that gold was the flesh of their
sun god. They were the first to give immense value to gold, but never
used it as a currency. Rather, maize was used as a currency. Lydians (part
of the present day turkey) were the first use gold as currency under the
rule of King Croesus around 500 BC. Gold was used as a standard
currency to buy or trade goods. This method was then spread throughout
the ottoman state empire when the Turkish beyliks conquered Lydia. This
was spread over a wide territory when the Ottoman State Empire
(Turkish Empire) was conquered by Alexander the Great and he took all
the gold. Gold was primarily only found around the regions of the present
day turkey in abundance , and thus until the invasion of ottoman empire,
and a great power to spread it across land, gold as a currency would not
4 have been possible. Alexander the great fulfilled both the requirements
and thus the gold standard was popularized throughout kingdoms.
As time passed, people realised the value of gold, and hence tried to
forge gold coins which had lesser gold content and more impurities in
them, leading to inflation. This meant that when 1 pure gold coin could
buy 5 horses, now for the same number of horses, 5 coins were required
due to impurities. Remember that people back then used to forge gold, so
only the content of gold was important to them rather than the value of
coin itself. Thus the first crisis due to gold standard was seen. The first
paper money was started in China under the Yang Dynasty. This type of
currency is what we call the fiat money. Basically these types of currency
have value because the government said so. The first fiat currency was
introduced to the west during 1500‟s by Marco Polo when he learnt about

EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

it during the time of visit to china. But the west and other major nations
preferred transacting through gold due to its value in their territory.
During the 1300‟s due to its more content of gold, and value, the Florin
gold rose to prominence and was used as a benchmark in the international
trade. Now you might have this question. If the gold standard was so
popularized and had so much prominence, why did we shift over to the
fiat currency? The answer to this is the political instability caused due to
some of the high groups during the 1600s. By this time, the west was
aware of the fiat concept used in china thanks to Marco Polo. During the
same time King Charles I seized all the gold and accelerated the use of
paper money, i.e. fiat currency through private banking system. The
reason for such a drastic measurement was because King Charles had
acquired a hefty debt and had to pay it off. Using the citizen‟s gold for
paying off his debt, left the people unhappy with his governance. Later,
even though King Charles I, did pay back the people‟s gold, they were
unhappy with him. Later, he was beheaded for using people‟s gold for his
self-interest rather than for the kingdom‟s benefit. Due to this incident,
people started to store their gold to private goldsmiths. Goldsmith used to
either store their gold or craft jewellery out of them so that people had
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constant access to it. Since a lot of gold were being transacted through
goldsmiths, a new transacting currency or rather a bond (A Promise) was
 forged promising to pay the gold upon showing the bond. Hence during
this era, the modern banking system had its initial state. This system was
popularized and followed up until 1700 when the bank of England
initially changed the procedure. The reason was because of many
different goldsmiths having different kinds of bonds, it made difficult to
trade over a wide territory. A common bond was formed with the
government‟s approval and this started circulating thus creating another
stepping stone for the modern world currency. Later on many wars, such
as the early French wars by napoleon and modern time wars such as
World War I and World War II made it hard for convertibility of
currency to gold, since gold was necessary to buy the supplies required
EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

for the war front. During this time, the US came to prominence. Initially
using tobacco as currency, they shifted to the fiat bond, which by now
was what we now know as money. By now, the high and powerful
middle groups were running the government, instead of ruling as a
monarchy. It is a common misconception that democracy leads even for a
common man to rise to power as a leader. Since early ages, and even in
the modern day democracy, a powerful man is chosen as the leader, not a
common man to gain power. A powerful man who already has a lot of
influence has a higher rate of fulfilling the needs of people through his
contacts, and thus middle group nobles or people from this group with a
lot influence started to gain prominence over the modern democracy. The
high had a very less change in profession of business and trade over time
along with a few in the government, and had established steady modern
business and industries during the early industrial ages. The need of gold
for business and international trade by the high caused the difficulty of
immediate convertibility of currency to gold yet again. Due to this
inability to convert, the great depression had taken a severe turn
downwards in economy and in 1934; US President Franklin D Roosevelt
abandoned the convertibility of gold through the Gold act and thus the
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bond then created took its final form of currency which is what we now
know as the fiat currency. By this time the middle and low were
habituated by carrying the bonds as known as the fiat currency and were
comfortable with it since it traded all the same goods that they required
and the gold could be used by the high for their stable growth
economically. We have seen that this was once the same as what King
Charles had conducted during his monarch, but was beheaded. But the
same was conducted after the early formation of democracy and people
accepted it. This was because by the middle and the low were habituated
with the use of promised bonds, the paper money, and they were
promised more equality, freedom and justice, which had a higher priority
among the low. Here you have an evidence and question to as yourself.
The evidence is that without the manipulation of the low towards

EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

democracy, equality and freedom, the economic stability using gold
would not have been possible. Also you can ask who had more practical
sense of justice and equality. Was it for the people during the time of rein
of King Charles I or the people under modern democracy?

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 Thus equality does exist, but is biased. This bias is not going to change
due to the power cycle. Equality, freedom and justice are present
/required/ craved for only in the middle-low groups of the power chain.
Plenty of incidents that have occurred in history are testaments to it. The
international banking systems are till date done through gold primarily.
You have seen that equality and democracy were given prominence in
the past and in the present primarily due to the economic stability. Whose
economic stability and how much it benefits the 3 groups accordingly is
obvious by now.
EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY

So what do you think now of the term “EQUALITY IN

DEMOCRACY’ or “DEMOCRACY FOR EQUALITY”?

YASHAS BL