Ronald Dworkin has a short comment piece in The Guardian in which he sets high standards for "genuine" democracy:
In a new book I argue that the conditions of genuine democracy are far from met in the US, the UK and other mature self-styled democracies. These conditions can easily be set out in very abstract terms. Government must respect human rights, it must respect religious freedom and other forms of freedom of conscience, it must distribute its wealth so as to give everyone a fair stake in its economy and, above all, it must conduct its elections and other political procedures argumentatively so that each citizen is treated as someone worth convincing not just outvoting.
In the comments that follow, I found this one, which starts off as if it is written by a normal intelligent person, but then suddenly ends with such aggression that it made me laugh in surprise:
I live in America.
I know I live in a democracy. I serve on my local town's water board, and on a county hospital board. Two of my friends are county supervisors. We argue our cases before our voters, the state, and the federal government. We've failed in some things but been successful at others and got funding to improve our hospital, our water system, our infrastructure. We've made a difference.
I discuss religion, politics, and economics on forums and blogs like this one before an audience of millions. My voice is heard. I get a fair hearing.
Because of this I know Ronald Dworkin is a sub-human, lying moron not fit to write advertising for toilet paper. He belongs in a sewage treatment plant where he can be converted to useful fertilizer.
You have to remember to take your pills before commenting, you know.
2 comments:
Noble and well considered sentiments (the first para; not the second), but I'm inclinded to think a new term would be required, rather than the beaten and chewed up "democracy", which has never been democracy as originally conceived anyway.
hear, hear, caz.
the usa is not a democracy, except in the modern or newspeak sense. nor is any other state, except switzerland.
the political classes have proven to be just as effective as any 'ministry of truth' or medieval church in harnessing the lower classes by making the idea of democracy impotent: conflating it with the plutocratic oligarchy that characterizes western society today.
i believe the war is lost. the emergence of genetic engineering will soon put into the hands of the 'uppers' a means to enforce their ascendancy by making the lowers uniformly biddable. 'brave new world' will result, if we're lucky. more likely, '1984'.
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