A democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others, as Churchill put it. It is Greek for “rule by the people”. In a democracy power changes hands peacefully through elections. In a working democracy power changes hands at least once every ten years.
In an election for a given office (president, senator, judge and so on), each citizen gets one vote. He casts it for whomever he believes can best fill the office. Whoever gets the most votes wins and stays in office till the next election (in one to five years, depending on the office).
All the large, rich countries in the West are now democracies. In the 1900s this was not always true. In fact, at times it was not clear whether democracy itself would last. Many thought fascism or communism was the wave of the future.
Americans are taught, from the time they are small children, that democracy is the best form of government. To them it is as plain as saying two and two make four.
Aristotle said that democracy, by which he meant rule by the people at the expense of the rich, would in time be overturned by the rich. The best form of government, instead, is one that balances the interests of the rich with those of the people. Democracy in the West seems to have achieved this: the people vote but only the rich, in practice, are able to stand for office.
Hobbes says that a democracies are not good at war: it takes too long to make decisions and it can change its mind. In practice, most democracies choose leaders they trust. They in turn make the necessary quick decisions. But it is true that democracies do change their minds about war and pull out. This makes them poor at fighting guerrilla wars.
For a democracy to work at least three things are required:
- Good schools: If the people have a bad education, then the democracy will destroy itself by its bad decisions. Or, more likely, it will be led by a demagogue that brings democracy to an end.
- Respect for the law: if those in power will not
play by the rules, if they think they are above the law, then any democracy that is in place will break down. That is what Hitler did to Germany and it is what Nixon could have done to America. - No deep divisions: not the sort which leads to war. Example: in America in the middle 1800s the slave states in the south found themselves outvoted by the free states in the north. This led to war which almost broke the country in two.
America is trying to set up a democracy in Iraq. Banana republicanism has already been tried and found wanting. But while the schools in Iraq may be good enough, respect for the law is plainly missing and so is the lack of deep divisions. So as things stand now democracy cannot take root there.
See also:
Democracy sucks!!!!
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Democracy is one of the most vile form of governments ever!
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Given recent events in Hong Kong, I have come to look back at this posting and thought about this:
The reason this has suddenly come up in Hong Kong is because of 2 serious bloopers that CY Leung committed 2 days ago when expressed the problem of implementing full universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
He said:
1. Giving one man one vote would give disproportionate representation to the poor
CY Leung expressed that half the people in HK make less than HK$14000 (US$1800) per month. If each man had one vote, that means that half the power would be with the poor and working class (which is NOT in HK’s best interests?)
2. Functional constituencies help ensure a fuller representation of society.
He said that Sports and Religion do not contribute to the economy, but can be represented under functional constituencies (sectors of society that have their own representatives which are not elected by the general electorate).
He drew fire for these. He later had to apologize and retract his statements. NO WONDER he does not meet with the protestors. He is likely to drop bombs causing a mess that he would have to clean up.
As we know, in the USA, sports and religion are both very big economic industries.
What is interesting is that many of the counter democracy protestors are those very persons who are poor or lower income working class. The HK government has convinced those people that it is best for them NOT to rock the boat. In essence, they have been persuaded to work against their own class interests. Supporters of the democracy protests tend to be better educated than average (ie, university educated or their children) but not among the wealthy nor among the poor.
It has emerged the protest involves not only the issue of full universal suffrage, but also about the growing divide between rich and poor. In HK, the gulf has widened considerably since the 1997 handover, and is now among the most pronounced among the world’s economically significant financial centres.
Which makes me think about the USA. The politics in the USA has also been orchestrated to encourage poor and working class to vote against their class interests (or simply not to vote). RACE has been a political tool to effect this by splitting off poor and working class whites, and to some extent, “honorary” whites (such as Asian Americans, white hispanics or wealthier blacks) and getting them to support policies against their own interests. It would be an interesting exercise to see how the rich in each democratic society manage to convince people to vote with them and against their own interests.
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The recent election results in Taiwan give food for thought after the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) suffered a large defeat to the more grassroots, independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) late last week.
It seems that KMT party leaders are resigning en masse.
The HK Economic Journal stated today
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Sure but is this more a republic. I mean a republic democracy.
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Most functioning democracies that are not monarchies are republics, no? Yet most republican democracies still exist to support the policies of the rich. The rhetoric spewed forth in Mainland China suggests that all democracies are like that.
The news article is simply saying, “not always”.
Anyhow, names don’t mean that much. North Korea’s official name is Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
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