The Soviet union can be formally considered a "democracy". There is nothing external or formal that may distinguish a democracy from any other regime. Since every modern state has the same elements. All of them use the momenclature of the age. The word democracy is the most overused world in this century togeter with "scientific".
http://books.google.es/books?id=kNfBCKFB8WMC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q=soviet&f=false By looking for a true universal classification for political regimes, It is necessary to raise the level of analysis to metaphysics and theology, since definitions need to be more and more abstract and precise at the same time. There is no way to use the external (formal) neither the internal (self reported) data. Basically the only possible forms of governments are the ones defined by the greek phylosophers. There is no others possible. The names used in each age vary depending on the ideologies that support the state, but that does not change the underlying nature. And the ideology that support the legitimacy of the regime is a form or religion. That is in what is based the branch of political theory called political theology, the deepest branch. Marxism is close to Islam. And The soviet Union close to an oriental empire with the King-Priest that has the unique power to interpret the true meaning of history. 2014-12-28 11:57 GMT+01:00 Bruno Marchal <[email protected]>: > > On 27 Dec 2014, at 23:40, Kim Jones wrote: > > >> >> On 27 Dec 2014, at 11:44 pm, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> On 27 Dec 2014, at 03:11, Kim Jones wrote: >>>> >>>> Democracy is a concept. It can be implemented in various ways. I like >>>> Liz's conceptualisation of it as communist-style sharing of astcronomical >>>> wealth and resources among the elites with cockroaches and urine for >>>> breakfast for the rest of us (that's what prisoners in North Korea get >>>> given for breakfast according to QC Geoffrey Robertson.) No one who gets >>>> jugged hare and Beluga caviar for lunch around Pyongyang feels like they >>>> exist in anything other than a perfect democracy. >>>> >>> >>> Bruno: I doubt this. I am sure that all dictator knows pretty well that >>> they are not in a democracy. They fight democracy by all means. >>> >> >> So why do they call this place "The DEMOCRATIC People's Republic of >> Korea (DPRK) ?? Is this some kind of joke or insincere label? >> > > Typical insincere label of a non-democracy. By democracy I think it is > usually meant that people can vote, regularly, with a representation of > opposition party, and some level of education (without which voting does > not really work). > The secret of the vote is imperative. Voting with hands does not count > (for obvious reason). > > > >> Oh, that's right - they have simply misunderstood the true nature of >> democracy, because they don't subscribe to this list, silly me. >> > > ? > We might have a problem of definition. I think it is just the definition > of the term. Democracy is just when we have the right to vote. > > > > >> They have defined "democracy" the way they choose; just as does every >> country who finds this a useful concept. As I said: democracy is a concept >> and concepts have many many ways of being implemented or delivered. >> > > I am not sure. Democracy is mainly the right of voting. The east european > countries could not, before the Berlin wall felt, and are democracies > after. Tunisia, Egypt, even Russia are doing step toward a representative > democracy, which obviously is hard to implement due to the conflicts of > interest. > > > > Clearly, the trick they employ in the DPRK is to define "the people" >> differently to other countries. That something like two-thirds of the >> "population" of the DPRK don't even officially exist (ie no birth record >> kept) appears to be the magic trick. >> > > The DPRK is not a democracy at all. Nobody would believe it is a > democracy, not even the leader Kim, except for some tyrannic purpose. > > >> The kernel concept of democracy is government by the majority. >> > > Not always. This is complex according to the number of party. With > multi-partism, sometimes we are governed by a tiny party which can > influence between two bigger parties which are close to 50%. That is the > case in my country now: we are governed by a party which is not > representative of the majority. In Israel also, very often, little minority > parties get a lot of power. This is the main reason why I favor bi-partism, > although this has some problem too. If the politics go too much on the > right, you can vote on the left, and vice-versa. This works, unless the > parties are manipulated by non transparent powers, like in America today, > at least for for some political questions. This is a failure of a sick and > old democracy. We can think about how to correct that, but democracies, > like living being, are fragile by nature. They can die, like in Germany in > the thirties. > > > So, all you have to do to have a workable majority is to erase a sizeable >> part of the population. >> >> Voilà. Government for and by the majority. >> > > > If the majority is erased or impeach to vote, the democracy is faked. You > cannot criticize the heart by pointing on people having heart disease. > > Bruno > > > > >> K >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Everything List" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/ > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Alberto. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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