democratic system

[thekraut]

inspired by tartanwiz i've been asking myself since yesterday: Is a democratic system really a good choice or just a way for the dumb masses to impose their dumb opinion on the intelligent individual? what do you think?

[fmpink]

No. Most people are too thick to understand the issues that really matter. Which is why President Blair is in power.

[jenstar]

The real power in a democracy lies not in casting your own vote (which is mathematically insignificant) but in being able to persuade other people how to cast theirs. Thus you end up with a system in which the cunning are elected by the gullible.

[sylvday]

Sorry to be cynical, but with reference to jenstar's comment, I'd rather have that than have a system where the gullible were elected by the cunning. Overall, Winston Churchill probably got it right when he said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.

[Postie]

It certainly would be nice to try a democracy in the UK, we don't have one at the moment and never have had. democracy /dimokrsi/ ' noun (pl. democracies) 1 a form of government in which the people have a voice in the exercise of power, typically through elected representatives. 2 a state governed in such a way. 3 control of a group by the majority of its members. ' ORIGIN Greek demokratia, from demos 'the people' + -kratia 'power, rule'. which is why I support federalisation for the UK. Item 1 in the dictionary definition comes closest to the UK position but demographic distribution of the populace and the vagaries of the current party system are a greater contributing factor to the eventual winner of a general election than the actual will of the people.

[tartanwiz]

A true democracy would be one in which the people effectively govern, not elected decision-makers. Those elected to parliament would have to put new laws through referenda for public approval. Everyone would have to have access to the internet to be able to cast a vote, and referenda would be frequent (though in practice only people actually interested would cast their vote). Some would say this is inefficient, but so what? Democracy isn't very efficient but that doesn't make it wrong, does it? The most efficient form of government would be a dictatorship, but is it right? You could always make me your dictator, of course. I would rule justly (or would I?) :-)

[derbyram]

the dumb masses are just as entitled to have their say as anyone else. Speaking as one of the dumb masses I'm all in favour of this as 'intellectuals' have a track record of coming up with very dumb ideas (Enoch Powell was regarded as highly intelligent yet he favoured re-patriation).

[thekraut]

I wasn't talking about intelligent and dumb people as two different groups. I meant that large groups of individually even very intelligent people tend towars some kind of collective and selfish dumbness. Best example for this in my opinion are environmental issues. every individual knows that something has to change but as a group they vote mostly for economic reasons. It's all about the prisoners' dilemma if you live in a democratic system.

[derbyram]

I wouldn't, for a moment, attempt to insinuate that you were campaigning for an IQ test before being allowed to vote. I think the system we have is as good as it can be, with all its inherent problems. In the example you give, environmental issues, it is up to the parties to put their views as coherently and persuasively as possible but at the end of the day the will of the majority should be allowed to hold sway - however ill-informed or misjudged individuals preceive it to be.

[JohnPPotts]

The advantage of a democratic system is not that we collectively decide on the best government available, but that when we have lousy governments we can get rid of them. Dictatorships may result in more efficient government (though that certainly isn't always the case) but are rather hard to get rid of when they screw up.

[bernardo]

The two options given in the question should not necessarily be regarded as mutually exclusive alternatives. The only thing wrong with democracy is that I haven't been elected yet, although that is because of the stupidity and ignorance of the voters rather than anythiong wrong with the democratic system itself.