4 ms·

> Protests don't achieve democracy, voting does. History strongly begs to differ - assembly to address grievances is just as crucial a step in achieving democr

• yorwba 7y ago
  The Magna Carta didn't result in anything resembling democracy, so it's not terribly relevant. The civil rights movement and the the end of apartheid may be better examples, but they both involve existing democratic institutions agreeing with the protest movements and passing legislation to fulfill their demands [1, 2]. My point is that although protests are a way to force a vote to occur, it's the actual act of voting that makes a democracy, and protests are neither necessary nor sufficient for that. It seems to me that the protests in Hong Kong don't have to wait for the government to "allow" them to hold a vote, so long as they can manage the logistics. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_South_African_apartheid_referendum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_South_African_apartheid_r...