Democracy: Who's best at it?

[JediKaren]

Democracy is a type of government where the people rule the people, or at least that is the hope. The reality is a very few, compared to the whole population, supposedly representing the people, their interests, and trying to promote the good of the people. Countries that have a democracy government system tend to be the richest, most powerful countries in the world. Probably the most famous of the countries is the United States of America.

Seeing how I have spent my whole like in America, gone to the school, been taught about our system, I have been taught our system is the best, yet what I see in real life, like the laws being passed, the behind the scenes actions, I have to start doubting how grand the government of the USA is.

Supposely the USA is so great because we are the richest, have the most weaponary, and have most control over the world, but what about its people? I see USA people wake up far too early, fight with the half asleep spoiled child who hasn't done their homework to co to school, go to work, over work and get ok pay, then come back home to bring back take out, feed the kid, try to get a bit of housework done, watch a LOT of tv, put the kids to bed, and finally go to bed dead tired and brain dead.

I come from a mid to high mid class family, but I know a lot of fairly to dead broke friends and families. I go to college in a poor part of Virginia. Honestly, I see a huge gap between the rich and the poor. I see the rich only governing and the poor too tired to care and be feed lies and tv to keep from caring. We are if not one of the top countries to have the most people in jail. If you look at the statistics, you'll see it a ton of poor people in jail, not the rich spoiled brats who do far more damage to people and the country than someone who ran a red light a few too many times.

My argument is while democracy is a really good, realistic way to govern people, I believe the USA is not the best at it nor should be seen in such a good light.

[leethal]

The USA are the biggest country or the best country only because of it's opportunities. It's a vast country, with everything on it. Every natural resource has a representative in the USA. Canada is as vast as the USA, but they're a little more to the north, so they don't enjoy the same warm climate. This brings major downfall in economics, though they're doing ok. I've never known much about it, though. Other than those two, only Russia is as big as they are, and Russia is somewhat a wasteland. It has lots of nothing, open fields with unfertile land. Or at least no one works it. And very little people. Of course this has to do with its history and policy.

Now on to the subject at hand, I believe democracy is like utopia. Maybe in the future, with high technologies, people can have something like referrendum.com, a website where you put up a referrendum (it's a poll that is binding to the law) and people just go on it and vote. And if your referrendum is turned down, nothing happens. If it succeeds, it goes law. That'd be an interesting thing. Though i bet a lot will throw me down for saying it.

My country doesn't have the best democracy, not even close. People here are already accustumed to the system and don't have any courage or willpower to change it. There's a lot of corruption, and no one on the government works for the people, but they say "eh, what can you do?".. Luckily, i beg to differ and always work to revolutionize things. Peacefully, though. always. But not yet. maybe when i'm old and tired.

[ismavatar]

Democracy is far from the great political system people make it out to be. Thus why the forefathers made sure that we didn't just have a democracy, but a democratic republic.

To start, there's a few things to be said about a democracy.

One, the US is not a perfect democracy, since not everyone is allowed to vote. In particular, children are not allowed to vote. Whether they should be or not is perhaps a whole other debate.

Two, we have a hierarchical democracy, where we elect certain persons to represent our beliefs, so that every single decision in a state doesn't need to be put to a vote. This may make things quicker, but then it really comes down to which politician you pick, and as well all know, politicians have a high probability to be corrupt, since they have no way of knowing every one of our opinions on every topic all the time, so they'll either take tips from the most outspoken people, or just go with their own biased opinion.

Three, in an ideal democracy, where everyone's vote is counted, rather than relying on the single opinion of an elected individual, it becomes the Popular Vote. Here's where my favorite democracy phrase comes into play. "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner". This can also be turned into a Socratesian question: "Is the majority always right?" You may have your own opinion on this, but I don't think this is a question that is open to opinion, I think that just by looking at the past, we can see that the Majority is rarely right. We've burned witches, crucified pagans, slaughtered jews, hanged blacks, and thought the world is flat. And that's just the start of it. Perhaps the question should be rephrased to "Is the majority ever right?" (heh)


Another political-economic philosophy comes into play to address these problems. It is known as Anarcho-Capitalism (hereafter A-C, since it's too much to write). The central idea being that Government is inherently evil, because it forces people to do things against their will, and therefor must be eradicated, and replaced by a free market. So then you ask, "Who's going to keep us safe, then?", why, the free market is! Where there's a demand for safety, there arise many firms/businesses to address this. Thus, courts, prisons, etc are all now privately owned corporations.
If you have any qualms about this, I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding an A-C. I have a friend who's one, who's taught me a lot of this stuff.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not an A-C. I have many criticisms for it. But when it comes to the political-economic system of Democratic Capitalism, and its various offshoots, I find that A-C seems to fill in the holes and criticize it properly, thus I don't have to reinvent the wheel, and can just start by criticizing the more concrete system of A-C.

[hanina]

I think a multi-party democracy is better than the American model. You avoid having the 49% disappointment rate because even a small percentage of votes means a seat in parliament. Every vote counts as the smaller parties have a say to some degree, especially if they form a coalition with the majority party. It fits the "people ruling the people" thing more.

That said, democracy doesn't automatically mean freedom, happiness and social advancement. It depends if your vote is actually going to influence the election! I used to live in a "democracy" where none of us can openly say bad things about the President without fear of spending life in prison, and it's even illegal to own a shop without the President's picture on display!