> "If it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should not a majority be liable to the same reproach? Men do not change their characters by uniting with one another; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with their strength. For my own part, I cannot believe it; the power to do everything, which I should refuse to one of my equals, I will never grant to any number of them."
Democracy requires that while the majority rules, the minority also have rights. Majoritarianism (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majoritarianism ) is similar to democracy, and some of its proponents argue is more democratic.
I disagree with that viewpoint. I do not respect a vote for autocracy, though of course this is abstract as my respect means nothing to those who voted that way, and I can do nothing to change things.
A democratic process must allow the minority at some point to be a majority. If you kill off the minorities, which yes, includes those accused of drug dealing, then there is no democracy. (And no, the frequent US policy of stripping the franchise from felons is not democratic.)
See also http://democracyweb.org/node/36 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority .
But you're taking issue with us on our 'high horses' criticizing it and that should be respected.
People have voted for dumb things many times in the past, in my opinion this is one of those times. Might or majority do not automatically make right.
If you 'clean up' a city or a country by extra-judicial killings that makes the cure no better than the disease.
If the country has a corruption issue the solution is not to go and kill people without due process. This is attacking a symptom, leaving the root cause un-examined and so will not solve the problem in the longer term.
People declare others who win stupid while claiming to to be democrats. That is hypocrisy.
While I similarly think people are stupid, I am not a fan of popular democracy. I believe my position is consistent with my belief. I am criticizing the hypocrisy of being democrat only when you get what you want.
Just like the labour party folks in the UK.
That's not hypocrisy, it is simply the best adaptation to reality that I can come up with.
And it has nothing to do with 'getting what I want', if NL will vote massively for Wilders in the next election (our local light-weight populist get-rid-of-all-Islamists-and-our-problems-will-magically-disappear politician) then I will consider that a failure of democracy.
Not because I don't get 'what I want' but because it will likely cause great harm to my country.
By the next election cycle given the way social media and the 24x7 news cycle are evolving into just pointless reaction and counter-reaction, voting will be restricted to those who can pass an exam. Like getting your drivers license and being allowed on the road.
We will have a new definition of what an elected govt is. And the commentators here can get back to thinking about things that aren't way above their pay grade.
Or maybe they do understand but simply do not agree with either the methods or the goal.
> First of all, Duterte was elected overwhelmingly with a clear mandate of using brute violence to clear out drug dealers.
This goes well beyond drug dealers (and even then it is not the way).
> He was clear about it and he is delivering on that mandate.
Could not care less about whether or not he was clear about it. Wrong is still wrong.
> He was clear about it and he is delivering on that mandate. I have to accept, he has made a PR error by not calling them terrorists.
Hard to tell if you're sarcastic or not, going on the assumption that you're not.
> The fact is, you do not get radical progress pandering to western styled hypocritical democracy or "human rights".
No, you'll get progress by giving everybody a license to go out and kill anybody they don't like on a pretext. That's going to make life so much better.
> It's the reality. A harsh one. Of course, I will not be so "logical" if I happen to be at the receiving end of such needed reform. But hey.. it's what life is.
It need not be. And if you're already hedging your position then I guess you too understand that this is not a solution, only more trouble.
> I am speaking like a man living in a country where some not so nice things will be needed to be done if we are going to ever progress.
Mass murder of citizens is never 'progress'. Especially not if the context is a corrupt police force that makes other avenues less likely to work. Then you go and fix the police force, you don't hand out a 'license to kill' to the population at large.