Re:Declining trust in government is denting democracy (2017)
by kazinator on Sunday June 20, 2021 @12:20PM
(#27571515)
The strictest logical interpretation of your statement is that since democracy requires various conditions X, Y, Z, as you say, then if any of those conditions are not met, then the phenomenon of democracy must not be present.
In that sense, you are agreeing with me because what I wrote is also that democracy requires a rational constituency (that therefore doesn't exhibit blind faith in government).
Though you thought you would be writing statements which disagree with mine, as you can see it is difficult to get away from the idea that democracy must be defined by the good outcome, and not the political motions and trappings that are supposed to cargo-cult it into existence. Dictatorships have pseudo-democratic "votes" also.
Consider that the bulk of the power structure of a modern "free world" government is not elected. The elected cabinet is like a squad of midget toreadors armed with whips, where the government is a 50,000 pound bull.
yes it is. Whether the trust is blind or based on reason, as long as the choice had been with the people's vote, it is democratic.
For some reason, some people assume that democracy will somehow produce the best outcome for them. Democracy doesn't automagically produce good outcomes. Democracy requires that each voter to be rational and informed, and requires the voting system to not exhibit bias (which the USA certainly does - first-past-the-post sucks). And even then, those two requirements only produce an outcome which is representative of the will of the people, rather than a good outcome for all (such as good equality, wealth distribution, etc).