PalazioVecchio
Member
- Location
- Area 51
- Country
USA
A Cambridge Professor of Politics gets the same number of votes as a long-term unemployed drunken loser ?
The Blair/Brown business model of 'import an electorate' to keep themselves in Power.
Gerrymandering, as best seen in Northern Ireland wherein the whole Statelet was an arbitrary line on a map to keep one tribe in Power, and the other Out. There was also much controversy within NI regarding the drawing of boundary-lines of Electoral constituencies. With the Unionists often getting 55% of votes in many areas and thus many seats on the local Council and/or the Stormont assembly. Meanwhile the Nationalists achieved a 98% vote in much fewer electoral areas. The net result was a Political Elite that bore only scant similarity to the demographic it allegedly served.
Then you have the 'welfare vote'....Huge swathes of unproductive & non-contributory people all deciding how to slice up the Pie.
The fact that many of the most successful & longterm States of History were not really democracies. Including Ancient Greece & Rome (both slave-owning places who denied women the vote). Including both Athens and Sparta....not democracies in any modern understanding of the term.
The 1991 American attempts to 'restore democracy' to oil rich Kuwait. Yeah roight.
The fact that most Islamic countries today are not really democracies - but only have a cursory nod toward elections.
Maybe Monarchies are better than Republics ? After the French Revolution came chaos until the rise of another de-facto monarch, Napoleon. Ditto the Russian Revolution with Stalin.
Democracy : imagine travelling on a bus where every passenger had a steering-wheel ?
A. Too much mono-centralised Power is a Tyranny. Not good. North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Cromwell's UK, Pol Pot's Cambodia.
B. Too much democracy is a weak talking-shop where nothing ever gets achieved. Like in Italy, Weimar Germany or the Republic of Ireland. Endless coalition governments, elections, debate, and often a lack of any meaningful leadership.
The difficult challenge is to find a good balance between A and B.
Discuss
The Blair/Brown business model of 'import an electorate' to keep themselves in Power.
Gerrymandering, as best seen in Northern Ireland wherein the whole Statelet was an arbitrary line on a map to keep one tribe in Power, and the other Out. There was also much controversy within NI regarding the drawing of boundary-lines of Electoral constituencies. With the Unionists often getting 55% of votes in many areas and thus many seats on the local Council and/or the Stormont assembly. Meanwhile the Nationalists achieved a 98% vote in much fewer electoral areas. The net result was a Political Elite that bore only scant similarity to the demographic it allegedly served.
Then you have the 'welfare vote'....Huge swathes of unproductive & non-contributory people all deciding how to slice up the Pie.
The fact that many of the most successful & longterm States of History were not really democracies. Including Ancient Greece & Rome (both slave-owning places who denied women the vote). Including both Athens and Sparta....not democracies in any modern understanding of the term.
The 1991 American attempts to 'restore democracy' to oil rich Kuwait. Yeah roight.
The fact that most Islamic countries today are not really democracies - but only have a cursory nod toward elections.
Maybe Monarchies are better than Republics ? After the French Revolution came chaos until the rise of another de-facto monarch, Napoleon. Ditto the Russian Revolution with Stalin.
Democracy : imagine travelling on a bus where every passenger had a steering-wheel ?
A. Too much mono-centralised Power is a Tyranny. Not good. North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Cromwell's UK, Pol Pot's Cambodia.
B. Too much democracy is a weak talking-shop where nothing ever gets achieved. Like in Italy, Weimar Germany or the Republic of Ireland. Endless coalition governments, elections, debate, and often a lack of any meaningful leadership.
The difficult challenge is to find a good balance between A and B.
Discuss
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