My German wife recently tried to tell me that the US is no longer a democracy. For the sake of achieving no argument....I said nothing.
After pondering...I came to this conclusion.
A democracy is a system of government where power ultimately belongs to the people (from the Greek term dēmokratía, where dēmos “people” and kratos “rule/power”) combine.
In the real world....this means the people decide who governs them and what the major rules of society are, either by voting directly or by choosing representatives.
The Greeks basically didn't write a rule to say only this status of people, or intellectuals, or idiots could run the democracy. Maybe they should have....but they figure the system would work with just about any group of people. If you elected some nutcase or fake-intellectual to lead you....you'd wake up and correct things at the next election....admitting you learned a lesson.
In my thought process....I came to four essentials:
1. You have to have free/fair election processes. If you fail on this....voting is a worthless exercise.
2. Equal law....no one gets extra benefits.
3. You have to allow criticism. If you gut free speech....you might as well gut elections at the same time.
4. Majority rule has to exist. If X-candidate got 55-percent of the vote....suck it up if you hate the 'winner'.
Once you suppress dissent or basic freedoms....there is no reality. You simply exist in a fantasy world with marginal landscapes.
Will I disturb my wife to bring up this discussion? No....she needs to believe in something....even if a false reality. You wouldn't tell a 6-year old kid that Santa fell off the roof and the ambulance took him to the hospital at 2 AM.
2 comments:
it would be interesting to see a matrix of countries scored by you and your Frau against the 4 points; US, England, France, Germany and maybe one more. It would give an interesting look at perspective built by the media there.
Survey says!
No matter where you go in the EU (or UK)....current gov't is mostly voted into power with 25-to-35 percent of the vote. Even in Germany....65-percent voted against the CDU (part of their success was driven by CSU). Massive division element: Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, etc. The one key element continually at play....skeptical nature expanding. I'd say near 50-percent of Germans have problems buying into the 'brands' or public TV sentiment....with younger folks more prone to ask questions.
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