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Democracy is essentially mob rule. It's great when the mob is doing what you want, not so great when it isn't. Currently most Western democracies are designed

by mannyv 3y ago

Democracy is essentially mob rule. It's great when the mob is doing what you want, not so great when it isn't. Currently most Western democracies are designed to protect minority rights against the majority because of this. In fact, the Bill or Rights in the US can be seen as a great example of this: it prevents the current majority from removing rights deemed essential. If you look at states that have weak individual property rights (all the communist states, most of the Iberian colonies) you can see the issue: weak property rights by individuals go hand in hand with authoritarianism. Those who want "change" always want to destroy the system. Historically speaking, that has led to disasters of one sort of another.

tommy5dollar 3y ago
The UK is one of the Western democracies without the protections you're talking about (no written constitution, no ability to bind future parliaments, law passed by a simple majority of parliamentarians, first-past-the-post and strong third-parties leading to parliamentary majorities with ~35% of the vote) but has one of the longest and proudest histories when it comes to freedom and liberty. Mob rule is always a risk but it's often better than rule by an out-of-touch elite.
- nemo44x 3y ago
  Why does the elite automatically have to be out of touch? They are the most invested in it all and are incentivized to have a functional state. Democratically elected representatives have no such incentive. Their only incentive is to convince enough people to grant them power. An aristocratic monarchy is preferable to an oligarchical “democracy” like we have today.
HereBePandas 3y ago
The US has had the Bill of Rights and its constitutional system / property protection for a long time but only recently has had the degree of NIMBYism that it's had. It's easy to pretend the bug is actually an important and noble feature, but sometimes it's just a bug that needs fixing.

by mannyv 3y ago

tommy5dollar 3y ago

The UK is one of the Western democracies without the protections you're talking about (no written constitution, no ability to bind future parliaments, law passed by a simple majority of parliamentarians, first-past-the-post and strong third-parties leading to parliamentary majorities with ~35% of the vote) but has one of the longest and proudest histories when it comes to freedom and liberty. Mob rule is always a risk but it's often better than rule by an out-of-touch elite.

nemo44x 3y ago
Why does the elite automatically have to be out of touch? They are the most invested in it all and are incentivized to have a functional state. Democratically elected representatives have no such incentive. Their only incentive is to convince enough people to grant them power. An aristocratic monarchy is preferable to an oligarchical “democracy” like we have today.

HereBePandas 3y ago

The US has had the Bill of Rights and its constitutional system / property protection for a long time but only recently has had the degree of NIMBYism that it's had. It's easy to pretend the bug is actually an important and noble feature, but sometimes it's just a bug that needs fixing.