Dear 24.57: Thanks for the lecture. But you are quibbling. After all countries like Britain and Spain are nominally constitutional monarchies, but they are considered democracies because their respective populations have such basic rights such as due process, freedom of expression, etc. They are also considered democracies in that their leaders are chosen through universal suffrage, i.e. they elect leaders to represent them in legislative assemblies. Today any country is considered a democracy if their citizens’ human rights are considered inalienable and are defended by law, and if they choose their leaders through universal suffrage. The rest is window dressing.
You are incorrect in asserting that a democracy is a system of government where the will of the majority rules, unrestricted by law. The ancient Athenians had no such thing. The first democracies of the West had legislative bodies composed of the entire citizenry of their city-states. In effect, every piece of legislation was passed by direct vote. The ancient Greeks had democracies where every citizen was entitled to vote on legislation. The whole point of having a democracy is to create laws passed by the majority, in other words, laws that were created out of mutual consensus, so that the entire population would abide by them. This is far from being ’rule by the majority unrestricted by law’. You are confusing democracy with mob rule.
You should teach the American political class as to the correct definition of a democracy. After all every President of the US has called his nation a democracy, from Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Reagan, to this latest bozo, who tells us that all we are doing in Iraq is ’exporting democracy’ at the point of a gun, while he does his best in weakening his own people’s civil rights.
Dear 24.57: Thanks for the lecture. But you are quibbling. After all countries like Britain and Spain are nominally constitutional monarchies, but they are considered democracies because their respective populations have such basic rights such as due process, freedom of expression, etc. They are also considered democracies in that their leaders are chosen through universal suffrage, i.e. they elect leaders to represent them in legislative assemblies. Today any country is considered a democracy if their citizens’ human rights are considered inalienable and are defended by law, and if they choose their leaders through universal suffrage. The rest is window dressing.
You are incorrect in asserting that a democracy is a system of government where the will of the majority rules, unrestricted by law. The ancient Athenians had no such thing. The first democracies of the West had legislative bodies composed of the entire citizenry of their city-states. In effect, every piece of legislation was passed by direct vote. The ancient Greeks had democracies where every citizen was entitled to vote on legislation. The whole point of having a democracy is to create laws passed by the majority, in other words, laws that were created out of mutual consensus, so that the entire population would abide by them. This is far from being ’rule by the majority unrestricted by law’. You are confusing democracy with mob rule.
You should teach the American political class as to the correct definition of a democracy. After all every President of the US has called his nation a democracy, from Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Reagan, to this latest bozo, who tells us that all we are doing in Iraq is ’exporting democracy’ at the point of a gun, while he does his best in weakening his own people’s civil rights.