This is a complex topic. But the short answer is, "Yes" democracy can
work. If the answer is, "No", then we might as well find a cave and
set up light housekeeping, or join the army of willing Suck-ups and
find us the bare ass of some Elitist, and start puckering our lips.
Democracy works. But only when the people practicing democracy stay
informed and involved. Since Americans have been trained for
generations to think in terms of the Rugged Individual, and Rags to
Riches, and to Hero Worship, we self destruct when we do attempt
democratizing any organizations such as Labor Unions, Service
Organizations, Churches and Garden Clubs. Once a group has decided
that they will practice democracy in the operation of their
organization, they wilt as soon as the first Strong, Self Proclaimed
Leader steps forward. We are simply responding to generations of
conditioning. In todays world there is no reason why a city, state or
a nation could not operate as a democracy. An informed public could
instantly respond to issues presented to them. Even a Republic form
of government is full of pitfalls. Electing someone to represent your
wishes takes away some of your power and gives them leverage to pursue
their own objectives.
To me, the question is, can we train ourselves to think in a framework
of democracy?
Carl Jarvis
On 10/7/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Truthdig
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> Is It Possible That Democracy Doesn't Work?
>
> http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/is_it_possible_that_democracy_do
> esnt_work_20161006/
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> Posted on Oct 6, 2016
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> Feral78(https://www.flickr.com/photos/emmettgrrrl/) /
> CC-BY-2.0(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
>
> Is it possible that democracy doesn't work? It's reasonable to ask the
> question amid the xenophobia of Brexit, the Hungarian
> referendum(http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/717619/EU-Hungary-migrant-all
> ocation-referendum-Viktor-Orban-Brussels-refugees) , Donald Trump's
> presidential campaign and the election of Philippine President Rodrigo
> Duterte, who gleefully compares himself to Hitler.
>
> "Most people possess almost no useful information about policies and their
> implications, have little desire to improve their state of knowledge, and
> have a deep aversion to political disagreement," writes George Monbiot
> (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/04/democracy-people-powe
> r-governments-policy) at The Guardian, reviewing the book "Democracy for
> Realists." The book, published this year, was written by social-science
> professors Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels.
>
> "We base our political decisions on who we are rather than what we think.
> In
> other words, we act politically-not as individual, rational beings but as
> members of social groups, expressing a social identity. We seek out the
> political parties that seem to correspond best to our culture, with little
> regard to whether their policies support our interests. We remain loyal to
> political parties long after they have ceased to serve us."
>
>
> The obvious answer is better information and civic education. But this
> doesn't work [.] Moderately informed Republicans were more inclined than
> Republicans with the least information to believe that Bill Clinton oversaw
> an increase in the budget deficit (it declined massively). Why? Because,
> unlike the worst informed, they knew he was a Democrat. The tiny number of
> people with a very high level of political information tend to use it not
> to
> challenge their own opinions but to rationalise them. Political knowledge,
> Achen and Bartels argue, "enhances bias".
>
> Direct democracy-referendums and citizens' initiatives-seems to produce
> even
> worse results. In the US initiatives are repeatedly used by
> multimillion-dollar lobby groups to achieve results that state legislatures
> won't grant them. They tend to replace taxes with user fees, stymie the
> redistribution of wealth and degrade public services. Whether
> representative
> or direct, democracy comes to be owned by the elites.
>
> This is not to suggest that it has no virtues; just that those it does have
> are not those we principally ascribe to it. It allows governments to be
> changed without bloodshed, limits terms in office, and ensures that the
> results of elections are widely accepted. Sometimes public attribution of
> blame will coincide with reality, which is why you don't get famines in
> democracies.
>
> In these respects it beats dictatorship. But is this all it has to offer? A
> weakness of Democracy for Realists is that most of its examples are drawn
> from the US, and most of those are old. Had the authors examined popular
> education groups in Latin America, participatory budgets in Brazil and New
> York, the fragmentation of traditional parties in Europe and the movement
> that culminated in Bernie Sanders' near miss, they might have discerned
> more
> room for hope. This is not to suggest that the folk theory of democracy
> comes close to reality anywhere, but that the situation is not as hopeless
> as they propose.
>
> Persistent, determined, well-organised groups can bring neglected issues to
> the fore and change political outcomes. But in doing so they cannot rely on
> what democracy ought to be. We must see it for what it is. And that means
> understanding what we are.
>
> -Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly(http://www.truthdig.com/alexander_kelly)
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> Legacy
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