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The reason why democracy is a good thing is not because the general public is good at running a country, or even good at selecting people who are good at runnin

by Zaak 15y ago

The reason why democracy is a good thing is not because the general public is good at running a country, or even good at selecting people who are good at running a country. The reason why democracy is a good thing is it forces the people in power to care about the effects their decisions have on the general public.

podperson 15y ago
Or to put it another way, it's the system that is most likely to throw complete and utter incompetents out of office in a reasonable period of time. "Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
electromagnetic 15y ago
I think democracy is a good thing because it is generally good at keeping the government in line. Even though 90% of what Republicans and Democrats do are the same, it is that they're eternally afraid of the public reaction that they do keep themselves in line. This is even more true in Westminster style Democracies where Members of Parliament can defect on decisions, or defect entirely to another party or go independent. Potentially at any time. Why? Because your local MP is supposed to act on your behalf, and you elect the one that stands for what you do. I know our present conservative government, and Prime Minister, would love to do nothing more than open the election debate and with their majority get some legislation passed. However, they're so afraid of fracturing their government that the PM has out and out said he will not reopen it. Sadly this isn't always so, as here in Canada the NDP has a dozen or so MP's who were essentially placed as seat fillers (in Quebec), but because of a bizarre turn around those padded seats became their entire election campaign.
anonymoushn 15y ago
It prevents the people in power from deciding to enslave all right-handed people, but enslaving all left-handed people is still acceptable.

by Zaak 15y ago

podperson 15y ago

Or to put it another way, it's the system that is most likely to throw complete and utter incompetents out of office in a reasonable period of time. "Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill

electromagnetic 15y ago

I think democracy is a good thing because it is generally good at keeping the government in line. Even though 90% of what Republicans and Democrats do are the same, it is that they're eternally afraid of the public reaction that they do keep themselves in line. This is even more true in Westminster style Democracies where Members of Parliament can defect on decisions, or defect entirely to another party or go independent. Potentially at any time. Why? Because your local MP is supposed to act on your behalf, and you elect the one that stands for what you do. I know our present conservative government, and Prime Minister, would love to do nothing more than open the election debate and with their majority get some legislation passed. However, they're so afraid of fracturing their government that the PM has out and out said he will not reopen it. Sadly this isn't always so, as here in Canada the NDP has a dozen or so MP's who were essentially placed as seat fillers (in Quebec), but because of a bizarre turn around those padded seats became their entire election campaign.

anonymoushn 15y ago

It prevents the people in power from deciding to enslave all right-handed people, but enslaving all left-handed people is still acceptable.