Politics

[Mish]

de⋅moc⋅ra⋅cy government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

The democracy as we know it is not a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them, we are in fact far away from it.

[Doc Durian]

check out "Republic".

(I'll shut up now)

[MVPlaya]

I doubt I'd marry a conservative, I prefer if she were liberal and atheist. However, I've dated lots of conservative girls, and my best friend is Republican. I don't exclude people for their beliefs, its just that politics are very important to what I want to do with my life, and if someone doesn't believe in the same things as me, I doubt we can really share our lives that well. I'm much more politically minded than most, though.

[Lipp]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-_JhRJ0tWA"]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]

[CAM]

Just out of curiosity, how come the U.S. only has two parties that completely dominate the elections? I haven't even heard the slightest mention of other parties.

Because we have winner-take-all single member districts. Other countries have multi-seat districts, proportionally assigned based on pluralities.

The answer is discussed in the context of Duverger's Law

[CAM]

Here, read more: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law[/url]

[IndiReloaded]

The only thing that is truly dangerous is apathy. When the majority of society adopts that attitude, then you basically allow yourselves to be run-over by those with an agenda. Otherwise, there are always options.

In Canada, the system isn't perfect but at least we aren't stuck with our 'democratic choice' for 4 years except under unusual circumstances. If someone really sucks, you tell your MP you are unhappy and you get a no confidence vote and an election called.

True, some countries like Italy have taken this to an extreme so the leadership can't get much done, but that's a price that is paid.

In Canada, we would have had a new PM already except the alternatives are worse than Harper right now. Leadership void, unfortunately.

[Doc Durian]

That assumes one has no problem with casting their vote to someone or party which then uses it to secure a minority's influence on the majority.

I assume that Canada is very similar to Australia in that regard, although correct me if I'm wrong and that's not how political business is conducted in Canada.

As I see it, it's vote for whomever you like but the election will be won by one of the main 2-3 parties who will use the minority to marginally jocky ahead for a win if they don't already have decisive numbers of their own. Deals will be made behind partnership doors but with no guarantees and no formal statements. Should they not need the small party support to win, the small parties are generally ignored and your vote for them more or less thrown away.

A cannabilism of principles, or political brothel if you will... pointing to an "ends justifies the means" mentality, which is far more sinister than apathy could ever be. At least to me...

Respectfully yours Indi,

Doc Durian