Around 2,500 years ago during the times of Socrates and Plato,
the democracies was based on cities. The governance of the
city was by directly elected representatives. Important issues
was put out for direct vote and that is how Socrates was
sentenced to death and the reason why Plato turned against
democracy. Socrates was described as a traitor for his ideas
and a threat to the political existence of the democracy.
The cities each had its democratic leaders and what killed
the democracies was the wars between them. The conquerors
of a city could not by definition be elected leaders of the
conquered and the leaders of the strongest city became the
the emperors of the other cities. At the end it was no longer
democracy, since the only valid electorate was the original
city and its followers. A story that has been repeated many times
and also was the story of WWII, where an elected and popular
leader set out to restore the situation before WWI. In this case
the elected leader was enormously popular in his country
and continued to be so until the luck started to turn against
him. The predecessor to UN was dissolved because it could
not continue to exist without support and respect.
Now we have democracies based on countries and different
organizations of appointment of governments. The only body
that somewhat represent a world democracy is UN. I really
hope that we can show respect this time and not repeat
history. Democracy will not work, if we do not introduce it
on a world wide basis and condemn any kind of occupation.
Democracy must be shown at a global level to survive. The
way that US and some others behave is by no definition to
describe as international democracy. We must nurture and
respect UN as a body at any cost, otherwise we will repeat
history and democracy becomes a theatric farce. All what
is happening around us now, is scaring. Why should we
force Iraq to disarm and follow UN declarations, when Israel
is worse and is occupying land that not belong to them. It
is understandable the Arabs or Muslims feel the consequences
of this kind of democracy and do not agree with the Hippocratic
repetition of history.
Even UN is not a suitable body, as long as some members have
the right to veto decisions in an undemocratic way. Bullying and
unilateral decisions are a threat to democracy.
Hakan
At 09:54 PM 11/8/2002 +0100, you wrote:
TDate: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 21:12:30 -0500
From: Steve Spence [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Re: BP chief fears US will carve up Iraqi oil riches
the USA is a democratic Republic. Not a true democracy.
Steve Spence
What's the difference?
The USA and most other democracies are Representative
Democracy.
ie. You vote for your representative once every 4/5 yrs.
Once elected, Government does not consult the electorate on
policy decisions, which is why we're not moving to sustainable
practices nearly fast enough. (the vested interests having profound
influence on govt policy decisions)
I'm working on another model, Direct Democracy. This is based on
internet voting, where any issue can be selected and a referendum
can be held at any time.
If we the people can unite on the internet, then just maybe we can
start to influence government policy.
James
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