Juho Laatu wrote:
--- On Tue, 17/2/09, Fred Gohlke <[email protected]> wrote:
Whether or not the US is a democracy is a semantic
question.
I use this term roughly so that a country
is democratic if people are able to make
change x if they are determined to make
x happen. There should be no fear of coup,
revenge, police or other serious personal
problems. This is the lower limit, not a
definition of a perfect democratic system.
This is somewhat offtopic, but consider a country where you have a ruler
who makes decisions in a dictatorial manner, but where those decisions
can be opposed by a supermajority. Would such a country be democratic?
The supermajority of the people could make x happen (or at least make
not-x not happen), yet their influence is very slight.
Perhaps democracy is a scale, not a point, with direct democracy on one
end and "elected kings" on the other? An elected king would be one who
rules with absolute power for as long as he lives (unless he resigns),
except that when the old king resigns or dies, there's an election for
the new king.
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