Is democracy for everyone?
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  Is democracy for everyone?
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Poll
Question: Do you believe that people are universally able to govern themselves via a democratic system?
#1
Yes
 
#2
No
 
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Partisan results

Total Voters: 38

Author Topic: Is democracy for everyone?  (Read 1196 times)
Potus
Potus2036
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« on: October 23, 2014, 07:20:29 PM »

I hear a lot of talk about the evils of American imperialism or whatever the latest buzzword is. I would be interested in knowing whether the Atlas believes that any group of people in the world are capable of democratic government?

I say absolutely.
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Deus Naturae
Deus naturae
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« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2014, 07:39:29 PM »
« Edited: October 23, 2014, 07:44:56 PM by Deus Naturae »

False premise. Democracy has nothing to do with the electorate "governing itself." Democracy is about the majority governing the whole. There are some situations in which this is clearly not desirable.

Also, how'd you change your username?
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politicus
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« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2014, 07:44:30 PM »
« Edited: October 23, 2014, 07:54:47 PM by politicus »

False premise. Democracy has nothing to do with the electorate "governing itself." Democracy is about the majority governing the whole. There are some situations in which this is clearly not desirable.

Not necessarily. You can have a government with proportional representation of all the major parties as in Switzerland (especially 1959-2008), or power sharing between ethnic groups as in Northern Ireland or Bosnia (not efficient, but still democratic).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_formula
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Famous Mortimer
WillipsBrighton
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« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2014, 08:12:06 PM »

I think respect for human rights and individual freedom is more important than democracy. Although democracy can be a good tool to safeguard those things.

It only really works when the population is educated though.

I don't think you can have democracy in a country where there hasn't been a compulsory public education system for at least a couple of generations, otherwise it just turns into an ethnic headcount.
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Middle-aged Europe
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« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2014, 03:59:57 AM »
« Edited: October 24, 2014, 04:04:34 AM by Breaking hearts and minds »

While being invented in and by the West, I don't believe that democracy is inherently restricted to the Western world. There are also functioning democracies in other "cultural" regions of the world (Buddhism/Shinto: Japan, Islam: Indonesia, Hinduism: India etc.).

Of course there are also a couple of prerequisites for a functioning democracy. First and foremost, before you can worry about who is governing you and how, your belly needs to be full. A sufficient level of education/literacy is also an important condition.

That being said, I'm highly critical of the practice of "exporting" democracy through the means of arms. Something Cheney, Rumsfeld and the likes seemed to strongly believe in.

(An entirely different issues would be military intevention to prevent genocide or other impending massacres, something I'm less critical of.)
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dead0man
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« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2014, 04:07:37 AM »

So you're just a little critical of stopping genocide?
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Middle-aged Europe
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« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2014, 04:55:03 AM »

So you're just a little critical of stopping genocide?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7c8QghPxk
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Bacon King
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« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2014, 12:51:40 PM »

Democracy is for everyone, but liberal democracy isn't
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tpfkaw
wormyguy
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« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2014, 05:55:45 PM »

Obviously not; to give just one extreme example, if "free and fair elections" were held in Rwanda the party that orchestrated the genocide would be returned to power.
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Qavvavak
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« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2014, 06:27:16 PM »

I say no because democracy is failing and not work for aboriginal (indigenous) in canada. Indian Act is racist policy and apartheid and residential school and assimilation all from democratic system... we keep our value system. HONOUR THE TREATIES
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Snowstalker Mk. II
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« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2014, 12:31:10 PM »

Yes, but liberal democracy should be rejected.
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DC Al Fine
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« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2014, 12:33:03 PM »

No of course not. Democracy is only good insofar as its relatively good at protecting people's rights. If the population has no problem infringing on rights and liberties, we should give other systems a look.
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politicus
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« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2014, 12:56:16 PM »
« Edited: October 25, 2014, 04:24:43 PM by politicus »

No of course not. Democracy is only good insofar as its relatively good at protecting people's rights. If the population has no problem infringing on rights and liberties, we should give other systems a look.

So you don't think the people has a moral right to choose who governs them?
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Hnv1
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« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2014, 01:45:00 PM »

Democracy is a pretty vague term, the liberal western democracy is culture-fitted I think and that's why cultures who still value tribal\extended family formation as a source for social behavior fail to create functioning democracies. Nepotism is the enemy for a fuctioning democracy, it inevitably leads to over-curroption and so on.

As an example, I personally think the emphasis on family relations led to the collapse of Arabic secular attempts at democracy and plagues the functionablity of political regimes to this day.
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