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Countries with the word 'democratic' in them: - People's Democratic Republic of Algeria - Congo, Democratic Republic of the - East Timor – Democratic Republi
by oskarth 14y ago
Countries with the word 'democratic' in them:
- People's Democratic Republic of Algeria
- Congo, Democratic Republic of the
- East Timor – Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
- Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
- Korea, North – Democratic People's Republic of Korea
- Laos – Lao People's Democratic Republic
- Nepal – Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal
- São Tomé and Príncipe – Democratic Republic of São Tomé and
Príncipe
- Sri Lanka – Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
I don't know the details of the political situation in those countries, but my hunch is that they are less likely to be democratic than your average country.
Is there a name for this phenomena?
- anExcitedBeast 14y agoDoublethink? Orwell's Ministry of Peace/Love/Plenty.
- rhizome 14y agoWell come on, why not consider context? There is no objective meaning of "democratic" outside of the ideal that no country satisfies, so what we can conclude is that in just about all cases it's to differentiate the governments from their predecessors. It just sounds a little out of place because no country called themselves anything like "The Glorious Dictatorship of Central Africa," or, "Plundered Colony of France, Southeast Asia."
- acomar 14y ago> There is no objective meaning of "democratic" outside of the ideal that no country satisfies, so what we can conclude is that in just about all cases it's to differentiate the governments from their predecessors. Oh come on, you can generalize that argument to practically anything. No real world examples live up to their platonic ideals so who cares if you call a duck a horse, it's just to differentiate it from a different species of duck. > "Plundered Colony of France, Southeast Asia." I like it.
- rhizome 14y agoyou can generalize that argument to practically anything Maybe, but that's not what I'm doing. I'm arguing for an implied "More-" before "democratic." That's what I mean by context.
- acomar 14y agoSeveral of the listed countries aren't democratic in any sense of the word. Even with context the argument is still absurd -- we intend to communicate meaning with the words we use, and the introductory paragraph in the OP and the comment you replied to both highlight cases where what a word means and how its use are unrelated.
- rhizome 14y agoThe sense with which you hear the word and the way the citizens hear it may be different.
- fusiongyro 14y agoI think we call this phenomenon "marketing."
- davidcuddeback 14y agoI was going to go with Post Hoc Naming, because the choice of name invites the post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy [1]: "Oh, they must be a democratic nation, because it's in their name." Alternatively, "Me Too" Naming. [1] http://www.logicalfallacies.info/presumption/post-hoc/ http://www.logicalfallacies.info/presumption/post-hoc/
- seanmcdirmid 14y agoYou forgot the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), better known as the "good" (north) Korea.