Robert W. Fuller Ph.D.

 

...Fair and effective government requires balancing the need for some centralization of power with concern about its proper use. That, in turn, requires a political model in which both parties acknowledge the legitimate functions of power and are conscientious about limiting it to the proper sphere. In the dignitarian model, tension between liberals and conservatives is regarded as a natural part of working out the appropriate use of authority in a given situation. Instead of being locked in stalemate, the parties engage, without fear or malice, in an open process of give-and-take until a common understanding is reached.

     

As rankism [i.e., an assertion of superiority], like racism, falls into disrepute, the partisan insults, put-downs, and smears we have become accustomed to will find less favor with the electorate. ...There is no reason to expect dignitarian politics to be less argumentative, but there's every reason to believe it will be more civil.

    

 The message of detachment common in Eastern religions provides a useful antidote to the rancor ...of partisan politics. It encourages us to ...acknowledge our reactions to a situation.... Activism is not conceived of as directed against an evil foe, but rather as part of a dynamic in which one's opponents also have a valid ...role.

    

Detached activists, while putting their strongest case forward, take pains to protect the dignity of their adversaries in what is, after all, a struggle to identify and expose whatever specific ignorance is sustaining the conflict. If you lose sight of the dignity of your adversaries, it's a sign that you're intoxicated by your own ideology. According to a Mayan saying: Tu eres me otro yo (You are my other self).

     

A dignitarian politics, while allowing for partisanship, would be inhospitable to the ideological extremism and dysfunctional incivility that undermine many modern democracies. The most effective thing one side can do to win the cooperation of the other is to discover what it is that's right about the opponent's position. Once a party to a conflict feels that some kernel of truth it defends has been appreciated by the other side and incorporated into a broader model-one that transcends the starting positions of both adversaries-it becomes easier for that party to cooperate. The day often goes to the side that takes the lead in figuring out a way for its opponents to hold their heads high while both sides abandon some of what they've been fighting for. Dignitarian politics is not so much nonpartisan as it is transpartisan.

     

...Imagine that a dignitarian approach to politics has taken hold. Parties of the left and the right continue to vie with each other for votes, but candidates who demonize their opponents are themselves discredited. Rather than being diverted by such sideshows, voters focus on whether their representatives are providing solutions that respect and protect their dignity.

    

 ...Unfortunately, there is no quick way-any more than there was a way during the era of racial segregation to vote enough enlightened legislators into office to pass civil rights legislation. The process will take time.

     

...If we ourselves presume ideological or moral superiority, our politicians will simply mirror one or another brand of it back to us in an ongoing attempt to find favor with a majority of voters. The result will be more of the same-unending, uncivil stalemate and stagnation.

     

To elect politicians who will build a dignitarian society requires the creation of a dignitarian culture. As this culture takes hold, our politicians will find it increasingly difficult, and ultimately impossible, to deny us dignitarian governance. Such a society will not come to us as a gift. It will come as we earn it-by personifying its values and demanding the same from our leaders.

 

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/somebodies-and-nobodies/201403/the-politics-dignity