Democracy

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Originally Posted by Godxilla

I say the US has the best because I just think so.

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But why? Why has the US the best democracy? Is there no way to improve it? Not even removing the electoral colleges?

The USA used to be a better democracy than it is now. Democracy requires some semblence of self discipline and self reliance. This phylosophy has seriously gone away in the past few years. The USA is turning into a much more socialistic society relying on others to fill their basic needs. Basically it is turning into a society that punishes success and allows people who are less than motivated to feel they are entitled to success they simply did not earn. Americans are becoming a society of lazy bags of shit who want their "fair share" when they have done little or nothing for it. Just fucking gimme.

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Originally Posted by jacknife737

I'm rather partial to Westminster style parliamentary democracy. Allows for multiple parties, but tends to keep things from getting too deadlocked.

Though admittedly I do hold mixed feelings towards first past the post: on an ideological level it would seem better to have proportional representation or a single-transferable vote system in place - but FPP seems to be fairly efficient and maintains direct local representation (which admittedly i don't really care about all that much - but it can be quite important to certain regions like those in rural areas).

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You can still have a local representation in a proportional representation. Some countries employ a system where during the national election you vote for both a candidate in your region and a party. Let's say you vote for Bob who is running for the Yellow Party. Bob would be the representative in the national parliament for your region if he won. If he didn't win and some other candidate becomes the representative in your region, your vote for the Yellow Party is still counted and taken into the national election.
I think this is a great idea, as you would both cover the fairness of proportional representation as well as being represented by a local politician in the national parliament.

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Originally Posted by Llamas

My comment covers direct democracy, as well, but I'm speaking more generally. Fortunately, most (all?) western countries do treat citizens equally in terms of voting - equal weight for all. Personally, I believe strongly in liberal democracy, but that doesn't seem to be even a consideration. I just don't think our political leaders actually give us the democracy they say they give us. Slovenia is an extreme example, but a year ago, the nation voted very strongly in favor of the Positive Slovenia party... but the country put the Slovenian Democrat Party in place because the former failed to assemble a cabinet in time. This supposedly a democratic country...

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Is there some law that the winner of the election has a certain time frame to assemble a cabinet in Slovenia? How did the Slovenian Democrat Party become the government? Was it the second biggest party?

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Originally Posted by Llamas

And then we get into protection for minorities, which actually goes against true democracy, but I believe it to be extremely important. So maybe the question is, do we WANT true democracy? I mean, I am pro-democracy, absolutely... but I think empowering minorities a bit is important.

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What do you mean with this? Do you mean ethnic minorities, and what kind of exclusive rights should they have in order to avoid a tyranny of the majority?

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Originally Posted by RageAndLov

But why? Why has the US the best democracy? Is there no way to improve it? Not even removing the electoral colleges?

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Okay, sorry. I was in a rush when I did that last post. Wasn't really thinking. Let me clear this up. I believe the the US Constitution provides for the best form of representative republic/democracy. It has remained relevant through the buggy age to the space age to the twitter age. It is a finely crafted document, and it provides for a balanced system of checks and balances. Perhaps the electoral vote should be tossed, but it should not be a system of popular votes. Rather, if, say, Romney wins Georgia, he gets 1 vote. Then Obama wins Florida, and he gets one vote as well. I wonder if this system could catch on, and whether or not it would last.

I like France because its voting is also clean and neat. However, what I really like about France is that it maintains a multi-party system that still manages to avoid those fucked up coalitions like in Egypt. I hate those because they need to fight just to form a government, not to mention use it. Say for example the Islam Brotherhood stands for all whites to die. The Nobels stand for kumbaya peace. And the Mubaraks stand for shariah law. None of these people form a coalition because they are one-issue parties. It's insane.

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Originally Posted by RageAndLov

Is there some law that the winner of the election has a certain time frame to assemble a cabinet in Slovenia? How did the Slovenian Democrat Party become the government? Was it the second biggest party?

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Yes, there's a time limit... and the Slovenian Democrat Party did everything in their power to try to keep Jankovic from assembling in time. Well, they succeeded in doing so, and got put into power instead.

The SDP is a bigger party here - the leader and current Prime Minister, Jansa, was Prime Minister like 15 years ago. He was insane, though, and sane people here hate him. I don't personally know anyone who supports him. He's a far-right xenophobic nutjob. Old people and staunch Catholics support him/the party, which includes the Catholic church (whose platform lately has been super anti-gay, basing campaign stuff on the idea that gay people will kidnap and molest your children before murdering them, and thus can't be trusted to adopt). The SDP didn't even come close to the majority of the vote, but they got the second most votes and were put in place when Jankovic failed to assemble his cabinet. So much for democracy :-/

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What do you mean with this? Do you mean ethnic minorities, and what kind of exclusive rights should they have in order to avoid a tyranny of the majority?

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Gays have been the subject of this issue, for example - there is a democratic vote to vote on the rights of the minority. Able-bodied folks voting on the rights for the disabled. I mean all political minorities, and I support concepts like affirmative action.

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Originally Posted by MOTO13

The USA used to be a better democracy than it is now. Democracy requires some semblence of self discipline and self reliance. This phylosophy has seriously gone away in the past few years. The USA is turning into a much more socialistic society relying on others to fill their basic needs. Basically it is turning into a society that punishes success and allows people who are less than motivated to feel they are entitled to success they simply did not earn. Americans are becoming a society of lazy bags of shit who want their "fair share" when they have done little or nothing for it. Just fucking gimme.

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Dead on, except to say that it has been drifting away for more than the last few years.

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Originally Posted by Little_Miss_1565

Obligatory post to say that the United States employs a representative republic form of governance and is democratic in nature but isn't a true democracy.

And France is totes socialist.

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Also dead on.

Its an important distinction, as true democracy usually devolves to mob rule, history is replete with failed democracies.

“A democracy is always temporary in nature: it simple cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”-Alexander Tyler

Unless we (in America) realize, it is not the role of government to help us, feed us, clothe us, take care of us, wipe our asses, etc, and quit voting in people who want to be in government. Quit treating politicians with reverence, and paying them in a manner that makes government service the best gig around, we're doomed.

"cause there's nothing left for us to bleed, give it up the champions of greed
so come around and have another round on me
dance fucker dance, let the motherfucker burn"

Hello there.. In my opinion... A system of government by the whole people or all the entitled members of a state, usually through elected government.