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bachus
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
Posts: 2924
Location: Up in that tree over there.
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 Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:12 pm Post subject:
democracy |
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From another thread:
| brinxmat wrote: | Now that I have loved you all up, I will go back to writing my denunciation of democracy.
(This opinion-o-gram was given to you by UTC) |
Yea, I prefer the Constitutional Republic form of government but with a democratic bias. The one the US has seems to be failing at present because greed and the inhernet biases of class and power have insinuated themselves deeply into the machinery of government.
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Fozzie
Joined: Jun 04, 2004
Posts: 875
Location: Near Wageningen, the Netherlands
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 5:03 am Post subject:
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Sorry for my ignorance, but what's different in a constitutional republic than in the current system? To me it seems that a constitutional republic can be any non-monarchy with a constitution, democratic or not?
Anyway, I do share your concern about the influence of big companies / big money on politicians in the USA, but that's probably normal as I am a european. The current issue with oil companies with huge profits and negligible taxes (if Dutch newspapers are correct) appear to highlight this issue again. |
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DrJustice
Joined: Sep 13, 2004
Posts: 2112
Location: Morokulien
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 5:59 am Post subject:
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There is this thing with democracy, it can all to easily slip into democrazy.
DJ
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bachus
Joined: Feb 29, 2004
Posts: 2924
Location: Up in that tree over there.
Audio files: 5
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 6:05 am Post subject:
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| Fozzie wrote: | | Sorry for my ignorance, but what's different in a constitutional republic than in the current system? To me it seems that a constitutional republic can be any non-monarchy with a constitution, democratic or not? |
You are correct. And such governments can range from very good to very bad depending on the constitution. The point is that it adds viscosity to the political system. In a “connected” world there opens the opportunity for a pure democracy instantly responsive to the will or the whim of the populace. This is not, I think, a good idea.
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The question is not whether they can talk or reason, but whether they can suffer. -- Jeremy Bentham |
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brinxmat
Joined: Oct 24, 2005
Posts: 262
Location: Norway
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| Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2006 6:11 am Post subject:
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Democracy is supposed to represent the demos — people as a (ideally homogenous) mass — not individuals. Democracy is an old fashioned idea that pre-exists modern individualist thinking, and in many ways counters the central notions of individualism and individual freedom. You can still have a facist regime that is democratically elected; you can't have any "regime" without concensus, and individualism does not lend itself to that kind/level of concensus.
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SynthLord
Joined: Sep 27, 2005
Posts: 49
Location: Tampa, FL
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:48 pm Post subject:
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| Quote: | | Sorry for my ignorance, but what's different in a constitutional republic than in the current system? To me it seems that a constitutional republic can be any non-monarchy with a constitution, democratic or not? |
Kind of.
A Democracy is simply a majority-rules system. Perhaps every little thing is presented for public vote, or maybe polling data is used to determine laws, but at its root, a Democracy favors the mob's whims over the individual's rights.
In contrast, a Republic is a system where the populace elects leaders who make the laws. A democratic system is used to elect the leaders, and used by legislators to ratify bills into law - but that's the extent of "democracy" in a Republic. And they can't just make any old law they want. It's a constitutional republic, meaning that the government can only act (in principle) within the boundaries set by the constitution. Thus our Bill of Rights features such beautiful language as "Congress shall make no law ..."
In the case of the United States, the Constitution was written to protect individual rights (and property rights by extension), and to prohibit the government from indulging in convenient activities which defy freedom (censorship, coercion, religious favoritism or persecution, unwarranted search and siezure, and so on).
I suppose it's possible that a constitutional republic could be tyrranical - if the constitution itself was like the new Iraqi one (which forbids legislation contradictory to the Koran), and legislators were appointed rather than elected. The USA form (regardless of the numerous failures and evasions of its caretakers) which is founded on the concept of rights is the best model so far of the constitutional republic as a method of government.
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Jason Stanfield
Armadillo Enterprises
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