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freedom
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liberty l
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solidarity l
spirituality
DEMOCRACY
The doctrine, born in
Ancient Athens, making the numerical
majority of an organized group take decisions binding the whole
group. This idea opposes minority-rule, dictatorship, monarchism and
imperialism. In Greece, only citizens were able to take seat in the
Assembly of Citizens. The "archon" and his eight assistants were elected
anually ...
Democracy is the political orientation of those who favour direct government by the people
or by their elected representatives. In representative democracies, the
"old" minority-rule prevails. Practical problems make an ideal
democracy, namely ongoing referendum government, impossible. In the
future, a system of world-government may empower every citizen of planet Earth to "take
seat" in a permanent virtual world parliament ! Then democracy will no
longer be "two-stepped", but truly a majority-rule. Of course,
for all practical purposes, this must go hand in hand with some kind of
representative system.
Representational democracy is a political system in which the supreme
power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them.
This flaw cannot be eliminated if (a) the masses are kept ignorant (hence
the importance of free speech,
free study and
ongoing education) and (b) the infrastructure of
e-government is not present.
The greatest challenge for democracy is to make sure the political class
in power is willing and able to implement decisive (and possibly
unpopular) laws, and this irrespective of their possible reelection.
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