We are currently living through an apparent contradiction. On the face of it public opinion has never been stronger. Information moves at a startling pace, interacting with and increasingly being defined by the users who consume it. Yet at the same time we have rarely seen, since the collapse of communism, European democracy as weak as it is now. How to explain this?
It was David Hume, the Scottish philosopher, who highlighted that it is upon opinion alone, that vague amorphous concept, rather than static universal ideals (never mind democracy), that states rest. He noted, in the mid-eighteenth century, that because 'force' is always on the 'side of the governed' and it was consequently on 'opinion' which governments must rule. Therefore 'even the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular' rest on opinion. Hume noted that even the 'soldan of Egypt' must have, at least, the support of his 'Mamluks' to rule.
For most of my life this seemed patent nonsense. How could one sustain such an argument in a world in which the many were frequently brutally suppressed by the few? Nevertheless, it has transpired that the fate of nations like Egypt does in fact rest, to a great degree, on public opinion.
Yet, while integral to democracy, public opinion needs tempered by it. A degree of stability and foresight is required of a state, which the individual lacks. In the good times, opinion exists happily within the confines of the system; opinion is willing to, on the whole, fall into a happy coma when it comes to politics. As long as human wants and desires are met, opinion is happy to let the status-quo continue.
But what about the bad times? What happens when the economy tanks and opinion can't be nullified by a quick spending spree at Topshop? The answer seems to be emerging in the cradle of democracy itself, Greece, where seven percent of the electorate have just voted for a neo-Nazi party. (It's a lazy comparison, but worth noting that the Nazi party won 3% of German votes in 1924.)
There are no simple answers to this emerging worry of extremism in the face of austerity. Reality cannot simply be suspended to ignore market realities. Equally, however, to preserve stability and democracy the often unpleasant and offensive currents of public opinion must be addressed. It's upon this that everything else rests: 'it may farther be said, that, though men be much governed by interest; yet even interest itself, and all human affairs, are entirely governed by opinion.'