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Democracy is just a different arrangement of same malice that exists in all other earlier forms of the rule. It's zero sum game. You focus on a few things at th
by zkmon 1y ago
Democracy is just a different arrangement of same malice that exists in all other earlier forms of the rule. It's zero sum game. You focus on a few things at the cost of the other things. Overall, there is no net gain. You don't need to look beyond the coalition politics of Europe, for example.
In non-democratic systems, people are assumed to be not having the expertise needed to choose the ruler. In a democracy with a large number of political parties, people's vote will be highly fragmented, leaving the decision to coalition politics, making the people's vote meaningless.
Also, the assumption that crowd is right about what policies should a government have, is also questionable. 100 monkeys, or the leader elected by them, can't make a better decision than a single subject matter expert.
Since non-democratic systems give far more power and duration to their leaders, a good leader in these systems provide a superior rule than a good leader in a democratic system, while bad leaders in non-democratic systems is worse than bad leader in democratic system. Over a long-term of multiple generations, both even out.
- f1shy 1y ago> In a democracy with a large number of political parties, people's vote will be highly fragmented, leaving the decision to coalition politics, making the people's vote meaningless. I do bot think in Germany there are large numbers of parties. Still this seems to aplly very much.
- agarsev 1y agoI don't think democracy is about having the "best" government, that'd be technocracy, I guess. Democracy is about sharing the power, and having the most legitimate government based on the principle that everyone's voice is equal. Also, it's not a zero sum game at all. First, even if the long stretches of good and bad governments equalized over the long term, it's much worse to live all your life under a bad government than have one half the time. Also,thinking as an engineer, think about the stability implications of a wildly swinging signal vs a smoothly swinging one, even if both are centered. In any case, coming from a country which had a long dictatorship until not so long ago, it's fairly clear it's not a zero sum game.
- zkmon 1y agoMaturity of a voter is over-estimated. If they are like kids, giving them candy is all that is required to get votes. If they hate the other community, hitting hard at the other community is all that is needed. Sharing of power? Coalition governments can't agree on almost anything. Heck, they take months to even form a government, after the elections are over. Sometimes a move to democracy only resulted in the same aristocratic families grabbing the power quite easily and keeping it for decades. Getting votes is entirely a different skill from running a country to its prosperity. Unfortunately it is seen as qualification to become a leader.
- keybored 1y ago> I don't think democracy is about having the "best" government, that'd be technocracy, I guess. That’s not the definition of technocracy. It’s more of a value judgement. “aristocracy” etymologically means rule-by-the-best for what it’s worth.
- tim333 1y ago>It's zero sum game. I don't that that's true. You have good governments and bad with different results.