Democracy is one of the most discussed topics in the world, and democracy is criticized every time a politician is taking wrong decisions or every time they are misusing their power.
Of course democracy does not come in one form only, the two most famous versions of democracy are the representative democracy and the direct democracy.
The majority of the democratic countries are having a representative democracy, where the citizens chose a politician that will represent them for four years. In other words the citizens are giving away their power and their responsibility for four years.
Before going on I would like to underline that I am not a big fan of the current democratic model, we are in my opinion simply having way to many issues that we can't solve with the parliamentary democracy model we are having now.
Somehow I believe that every regime has something to offer, but then it needs to be replaced with something else, or at least be further developed which I don't see is happening these years. Our world should be dynamic in the political sphere also.
As mentioned we are used to people being critical and pointing out the mistakes of the democratic system.
But let's turn the tables for a second, if you are perfectly honest to yourself, how much effort did you put into changing the current model or demanding more rights as a citizen? How many times would you switch your leisure time in order to re-think the current democratic system?
In the majority of the cases, people would not be bothered by giving things an extra thought, which is why the current failed model ironically is very democratic. It is representing people who simply don't care.
Too many people tend to throw away their responsibility and point at the issues of the democratic system, and isn't it more convenient just to say they are all corrupt instead of asking yourself what you could do in order to establish a better alternative?
We have reached the point where the criticism has become a sleeping pill rather than the basis for creating an alternative.
Let's try to think of an alternative that also can receive criticism instead of just pointing fingers.
upvote too
Thanks james! All the best.
Well. if you want to get things done, you need an authoritarian government, which nobody wants. The more "democratic" the government, the longer it takes to get things done. I wrote an essay on how I think the electoral college should be reformed to better suit modern day population densities and distributions.
Interesting essay, I really enjoy reading innovative and new ideas even if they are unpopular sometimes.
What was the conclusion of your paper?
I wrote about how our country was founded upon the principles of equality, and how inequality will only grow over time due to lack of enforcement of voting rights, partisan gerrymandering, and the electoral college. Did you know that it is predicted that by 2040, 70% of Americans will live in the fifteen largest states and have only 30 senators, while the remaining 30% of Americans will have 70 senators? I argued that they should make an amendment to the constitution despite the unlikliness of that happening, and making it a popular vote kind of election. A benefit of the popular vote is also that there would be more political parties and different opinions heard. George Washington thought that political parties were bad because they would look to benefit themselves and not the country... and look where that’s gotten us.
Very interesting paper indeed. There is no doubt that this is an issue for the US now. The political parties seems to be very focused on their interests rather than the interests of the common good.
If you take Al Gore as an example than you see that only when power seems out of range, there is a reason to start focus on the issues with the current system.
Many of the founding fathers of the United States would be a bit surprised if they saw what the US has become in terms of power distribution.
Democracy, not in Nigeria
How would you describe the things in Nigeria?
Hmm. Things are going sideways in terms of our government. They do things they way the feel like
This is the issue in many countries, but the question is whether we react to that. I find Nigeria very interesting, since it is a place where the coexistence of Christians and Muslims has worked out well for many years. Now it seems to go wrong a bit though :(
My dear, it's not easy here. Look at what Fulani herdsmen did to families in Benue state
Democracy can only exist under certain conditions and it's not the panacea that the left likes to pretend it is. Democracy requires:
1). An informed, intelligent, and vigilant electorate.
2.) Respect for rule of law and equality under the law (a bit redundant)
3.)100% publicly funded elections
4.) Equitable land tenure
If you don't have these criteria you have some variant of oligarchy with rubber stamp elections, and the U.S. fails on all four.
There are sure many things planned, but many of the bad things happens because we also allow them to happen but not participating at all. At least that is how I see things happen lately.