My overall feeling is that democracy isn't working as it's supposed to. I've always believed in democracy, but I'm starting to lose faith in it. From my point of view, democracy takes for granted that the people as a hole are smart and educated enough to make the right decisions and avoid being deceived by those better educated. I'm not anti-democratic at all, I've just been giving this issue a lot of thought lately and I'd love to hear what other people who like arguing about this stuff have to say about it.
I'm glad you asked. I'd like you to have this Chinese realpolitikal document. http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon...=d2.4&toc.depth=1&toc.id=0&doc.lang=bilingual
Democracy is the best form of government not because it produces good choices, but because we all share responsibility for the bad ones. No one believes even half the folks in this country have anything intelligent to contribute to the process of government (there is great disagreement about which half). But if we excluded even a small group of people from the process, those people would eventually find a fault with even the best policies and would claim tyranny had imposed that fault on them. They would be right. This is how revolutions occur. America will never have another revolution. Anything we've ever done wrong was equally the responsibility of everyone who voted for it, failed to vote on it, or failed to convince enough of us there was a better way. The most anyone could ask is that next time we consider all suggestions and vote for the guy who seems to offer the best ones. Which is all we've ever promised to do.
No, people have a small range of things they can be responsible for. Even with an IQ between 116-122 I barely manage to try to address banking reform, and you expect the average person to be responsible for the whole state. A man can only be very good at some particular thing, or it effects the quality of his work.
Democracy is only as good as the electorate. "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." Thomas Jefferson Americas Best (and Worst) Educated States Fox Business
I think it was Ben Franklin who said the best form of government was a benevolent monarchy. If you stop to think of it, political campaigns are a device to fool the people into voting for them. Who fools the most people usually wins the election. Now when our Republic was first founded, it was only white property owners who could vote. Of course each state set its own requirements so what I just said might not have applied to all of the original thirteen states. Since then through increments the vote was expanded to all white men, then blacks, then women, then the age was dropped down to 18. Again some states jumped the gun on these and allowed blacks and women the vote prior to the different amendments. So in a way this country has always been ruled by the elite. The better educated and the rich. We voters are just a necessary evil in our political system. We are manipulated with false promises and sometimes down right lies. Our political system if jury rigged to give us basically two choices, a Republican or a Democrat. Those two parties write the election laws to ensure no third party becomes viable. Then those parties are bought by special interests, corporations, wall street firms, lobbyists, huge money donors who rule behind their faces. Either the parties go along with those who give them their tens of millions of dollars or they threaten to give their money to their opponent. There is no such thing as a fair election in this country. Perhaps there never has been. But what a democracy does is at least give us the feeling we have a voice in our government. In reality the elites in Washington do what the elites in Washington want to do as long as it has the approval of those mega money donors.
My expectations and your limitations are not significant. If you are a U.S. citizen you are an equal partner in this enterprise. Whether you are good, bad, or otherwise you have the same vote and the same responsibility as every other citizen. That's what democracy means.
It doesn't mean anything, and we lack sufficient integration to be involved in a self-same organization, much less an enterprise. Do read perotista's post.
I think it was Ben Franklin who said the best form of government was a benevolent monarchy. If you stop to think of it, political campaigns are a device to fool the people into voting for them. Who fools the most people usually wins the election. Now when our Republic was first founded, it was only white property owners who could vote. Of course each state set its own requirements so what I just said might not have applied to all of the original thirteen states. Since then through increments the vote was expanded to all white men, then blacks, then women, then the age was dropped down to 18. Again some states jumped the gun on these and allowed blacks and women the vote prior to the different amendments. So in a way this country has always been ruled by the elite. The better educated and the rich. We voters are just a necessary evil in our political system. We are manipulated with false promises and sometimes down right lies. Our political system if jury rigged to give us basically two choices, a Republican or a Democrat. Those two parties write the election laws to ensure no third party becomes viable. Then those parties are bought by special interests, corporations, wall street firms, lobbyists, huge money donors who rule behind their faces. Either the parties go along with those who give them their tens of millions of dollars or they threaten to give their money to their opponent. There is no such thing as a fair election in this country. Perhaps there never has been. But what a democracy does is at least give us the feeling we have a voice in our government. In reality the elites in Washington do what the elites in Washington want to do as long as it has the approval of those mega money donors.
Yes, a Representative Democracy with educated voters participating in the system, is the best form of govt. But we need to make our democracy better, as its too influenced by money and political parties have too much power to select or ignore candidates. - - - Updated - - - Yes, a Representative Democracy with educated voters participating in the system, is the best form of govt. But we need to make our democracy better, as its too influenced by money and political parties have too much power to select or ignore candidates.
Well the exact answer depends on the true intent of your question. If you are referring to a Direct Democracy (in which the government is directly ruled by the people), then no it is a far cry from the best possible form of government (seen in the fact that no modern government operates under a direct democracy at the federal level, the only nation that runs some sort of direct democracy is Switzerland and I believe that is only at a local level). The quote "the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" is always being thrown around and it holds an incredible amount of truth. Any form of a community that operates under a direct democracy will inevitably be ruled by current, popular factions and beliefs that are formed within the community (often sparked by outside sources). This unfortunately leads to the minority opinion almost always being drowned out by the majority opinion and any supporters of the minority will hold very little power in said community. So no a direct democracy is not the best possible form of government because minority voices go virtually unrepresented. If you are referring to a system of government similar to that of the United States (which is actually a Republic, not a democracy contrary to what many believe), then it becomes a matter of opinion. Theoretically under this form of government, the system of Checks and Balances should allow all opinions equal opportunity to be represented nationally by not allowing one faction or belief to gain too much traction or power over others who support opposing beliefs. Although this sounds great in theory, an inevitable side effect of this system is inefficiency in regards to getting things accomplished within the government. The system of Checks and Balances weeds out many attempts at reform and requires maximum input to achieve minimal output in regards to passing bills and amending current policies. This is why we hear a lot about the sluggishness of the American senate and their inablity to compromise on far too many issues. So if you believe that the "equal" representation of opinions is worth the inefficiency, then yes this form of government is probably one of the better forms out there. If you don't believe this to be a good trade-off, then you probably think this form of government falls onto the other side of the spectrum.
"Is Democracy really the best form of government possible?" HMMM........considering (if you live in the US) that we do NOT live in a "Democracy"....... Last I was informed, the USA is considered a Constitutional Republic. http://www.thisnation.com/question/011.html You sure failed in school, huh?
It's not a choice. If you are a U.S. citizen, you are an equal owner in this nation (nations are enterprises). Ownership is responsibility. The only way to way to avoid that responsibility is to no longer own that asset -- to renounce your citizenship. You can wish we were a benevolent monarchy, that a parent would take responsibility for your life. But that's only a wish. No one is going to volunteer to take responsibility for you having a life free of responsibility, to be a child again.
"You can fool all of the people some of the time....." Here's the basic dilemma. our political instincts are designed like those of a troop of baboons. In order to be a united effective group, our "troop" has to agree on basic social concepts. Such as will our be troop be a share and share alike group, or will it be every baboon for himself when a kill is made and meat is available? In order to achieve this basic unity, it is necessary that most of us dumb baboons always try to internalize what ever basic views we think are the most popular. Most of us baboons have to be constantly wetting our fingers and sticking them in the "political wind" to know which way it is blowing. Then we high tail it to what we believe to be the center of public opinion. If most of us dumb animals didn't do this, our troop would be disunited, squabeling and ineffective. However If a group of evil baboons conspires together they can institute a new troop consensous, a concensous that favors the evil conspirators but that is detrimental to the group as a whole. They do this by shouting the loudest and constantly "staying on message". However, there are always a few baboons who don't care to be "popular". These often are semi-outcast. This type of baboon will think what he d*mn well pleases and doesn't care what the opinion of the rest of the troop is. He is still loyal to the troop though. Autistic people, "loners" and such tend to be present in the set of the independent minded . Also children who are too young to have learned to curb their tongue on certain issues. "Look daddy! the emperor is naked as a jay bird!" Later, when the loners begin to see the plot behind the new, troop detrimental "opinions" their patriotism to the troop makes them start to socialize more and point out the evil plot to the vast majority of "finger wetters" in the troop. We are now in the middle of a transition from a group destructive philosophy to a more useful set of ideas and beliefs. So there is going to be a lot of political turmoil for some time. The autistics, loners and occasionally a young child are beginning to make some head way waking up the rest of the baboons who only want to be "popular", or in modern terms "politically correct".
Democracy is the only form of government which does really exist. Dictatorship exists when a member of the democracy convinces the remainder through persuasion or coercion to support his policy. Democracy does not occur at the voting booth, it occurs at the end of the sword. So I guess the question isn't "is democracy the best form of government", but rather "is it possible to persuade or coerce others into meeting my ambitions?".
America as founded was a constitutional Republic. I'm not sure the current actual operation of the government would still meet that. However, I do think a constitutional republic with a limited electorate that is selected as demonstrating good citizenship, would be the best form of government; not "democracy."
Democracy was adopted to supersede monarchy and obtain more freedom for the individual. It has really not panned out as intended. Things end up being run for the benefit of those at the top whether in the case of unions, where every member has a vote, or corporations, where every stockholder has a vote, or Washington DC, where every voter has a vote. Now DC is by far the richest region in the nation, and they don't grow corn, don't build cars, and don't write software (at least not any that works, see healthcare.gov). A new model is needed for the 21st century. Hopefully there is some scribbler working away at it as we speak. I doubt that I will see it emerge in my lifetime.
