Does democracy work?

Democracy is one of the biggest shams in the book. Do you know that in latin, democracy translates to "mob rule." People calling for democracy are playing right into the hands of the beast.

I say the hell with democracy. Give me a constitutional republic!

 

The thing is that the US “despite being a federal republic where no direct democracy exists at the federal level, over half the states (and many localities) provide for citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives (also called "ballot measures" or "ballot questions") and the vast majority of the states have either initiatives and/or referenda”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy#Direct_democracy_in_the_United_States

So it could be possible to have a constitution that both protected minority rights and incorporate direct democracy.

 

democracy isnt held within the shackles of parliament/congress etc...


too many people seem to forget that

 

democracy works no better or worse then people work it. it isn't a cornicopia that gives you anything, it is a method and a tool with which certain things can be persued. nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

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Amen.

 

The Authors of the Constitution thought about this alot, and tried to make safegaurds in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights, a Senate picked by the States, and long terms are the fixes they came up with. I said yeah it works, cause what other form of goverment has worked better more often?

 

It's a known fact that the majority within a nation, especially if you're talking about, let's say the U.S., are not that bright, the average I.Q. being 104. So no, Democracy is a tool used by the powerful.


Ha, my vote takes the NO to the lead.

 

:jester: DEMOCRACY....Sounds like a good idea. We should give it a try some time.

 

The irony is so beautiful I didn't vote... but the way I see it, the only alternative is anarchy, and that's a road I don't want to go down. IMO democracy is OK as long as there is a high element of personal choice and it's not like every single thing is majority rules. If that makes sense... I'm not really thinking this through, I'm too tired.

 

What isn't a tool used by the powerful?

The powerful got that way because they are good at using their surroundings to gain power.
In any system, culture or community there will be people who are better at getting their way than other folks.
History has shown that restraining what can be done by the powerful is an achievable goal. Eliminating the powerful (i.e. no one gets their way more often than others) has never happened.

 

nothing really works, cos sometimes people are just plain bad/stupid etc. i dont really know much what im talking about cos im a bit simple, but it seems like democracy isnt so bad.but peoples stupidity/ignorance/selfishness means its not gonna make the world great

 

Democracy is actual a bit vague of a word, because you can have different types of democracy, like representative democracy such as in the u.s., as opposed to to direct democracy or consensus based democracy.

 

i believe in liberty and the right to the individual, but i also believe in cooperation and free associations creating mutual benefit for people. i think people should be free to associate and make desicions that are directly or participatoraly democratic, but i do not think that one set of rulers should be elected to make decisions that effect everyone without them. no one can know how an elected represenative will vote in a given decision that is not presented to them at the time of an election. our US "democracy" is a bunch of pre-checked and approved mostly rich white men who make decisions in the interest of big business and fuck the rest of us. that is not democracy.

 

nothing is working
we are in deep shitt

 

Everything works at first. But since no one is perfect, no government will ever work. People will always make mistakes, no matter how wonderful we think they are. And then you get people in there who have a superior attitude and think that because they help make or enforce the laws then they are above those laws, and that they are better than all of us so that gives them the right to decide who is a good parent, who is a good husband/wife, who is a good person in general.

 

there's the key to understanding the problem
different views = conflict
ouch

 

Well the Ontario Election came and went and the Liberals actually gained 4 seats, another blow for democracy, it doesn't work!

 

What is paradoxicality? Only anarchy works. Free love, free sex, free pot, freedom. Up the revolution.

 

It works at taking away my individual rights.

 

i don't think we've ever had the means in place to give it a fair test on the scale of any major government, however much must of them feel compelled to pay lip service to it.

also, how would you define whether it was working or not?

an absolute monarch CAN give you more freedom than a popular consensus is ever likely to, its just that monarchies with any sort of real power can never be counted upon domestically. but then democracies can never be counted upon to behaive themesleves equitably internationally either.

the best government would be one that based real policies on their real effects on real people, places and things, and didn't put the intrests of little green pieces of paper ahead of doing so.

i'd have to say, as indeed i have, that democracy doesn't guarantee anything, but i'd feel even less secure without something very much like it, or what it could and should be anyway, if people were accurately and honestly informend, which is another big problem of course.

this really isn't such a simple question. defacto democracy works well in a local tribal setting of near anarchy. whether it exists at all in large, supposedly representational governments, well i'm not convinced i've really seen it tried.

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