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What is your test to determine whether a nation has reached the level of "flawed democracy?" Is the US one? I mean even anarchism could be considered 'flawed

What is your test to determine whether a nation has reached the level of "flawed democracy?" Is the US one? I mean even anarchism could be considered 'flawed democracy.' The power is theoretically at the individual level, with the population of each government split down to a democracy of size '1' and the individual voting how to dictate his/her own life, although of course even that is flawed. Then again, if you frame it as "flawed democracy" vs "everything worse than that" then almost by definition flawed democracy is going to win...

toss1 4y ago
Criteria? First of course is that the people elect their leaders and not the leaders selecting their "voters". How independent are the various pillars of a functioning democracy? The Legislative, Judiciary, Executive, Press, Academia, Industry, Religions, NGOs, etc.? Are these institutions free to pursue their own course, or have they all been co-opted to serve the ends of an autocrat or oligarchy? This all exists on a spectrum that can be measured. Hungary is, although nominally a democracy, tipping strongly to autocracy and is in danger of being expelled from the EU. OTOH, Iceland kicked out the bankers & politicians that caused the crisis a decade ago... Both nominally democracies, one strong, one weak. The US nearly fell to Hungary's fate, and still may, but things are trending better and a majority recognize that parts of one party are no longer a valid political party but are attempting to threaten democracy itself. So, no it is not a self-defining tautology, but a characteristic that can be measured. The US has not yet fallen, but is definitely under attack from within on two major fronts, one is masquerading as a political party, and the second was previously the greatest threat, which was corporate regulatory & legislative capture. Progress is being made against both. I'd suggest reading a bit more about it with the Renew Democracy Initiative [0]. [0] https://rdi.org/our-values/#statement https://rdi.org/our-values/#statement

toss1 4y ago

Criteria? First of course is that the people elect their leaders and not the leaders selecting their "voters". How independent are the various pillars of a functioning democracy? The Legislative, Judiciary, Executive, Press, Academia, Industry, Religions, NGOs, etc.? Are these institutions free to pursue their own course, or have they all been co-opted to serve the ends of an autocrat or oligarchy? This all exists on a spectrum that can be measured. Hungary is, although nominally a democracy, tipping strongly to autocracy and is in danger of being expelled from the EU. OTOH, Iceland kicked out the bankers & politicians that caused the crisis a decade ago... Both nominally democracies, one strong, one weak. The US nearly fell to Hungary's fate, and still may, but things are trending better and a majority recognize that parts of one party are no longer a valid political party but are attempting to threaten democracy itself. So, no it is not a self-defining tautology, but a characteristic that can be measured. The US has not yet fallen, but is definitely under attack from within on two major fronts, one is masquerading as a political party, and the second was previously the greatest threat, which was corporate regulatory & legislative capture. Progress is being made against both. I'd suggest reading a bit more about it with the Renew Democracy Initiative [0]. [0] https://rdi.org/our-values/#statement https://rdi.org/our-values/#statement