Democracy and the state of it

[biostud]

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." -Churchill

We are trying to spread democracy to countries without democracy, but given the current state of our own democracy, don't we need to evaluate our own system and make it better?

Low voter turnout, corruption and hate campaigns instead of solid politics. How can we change this? How can we make democracy better?

 

[Scotteq]

Well.. We could start by Forming One.

Spoiler

There are no true Democracys. Not One.

 

[Mursilis]

History and experience suggests the following: Since voters tend to favor the short-term (tax cuts and/or additional gov't benefits) over the long-term (manageable debt, for example), a popularly-elected gov't needs systemic safeguards to prevent a country voting itself into financial ruin; a balanced budget amendment or some similar device.

 

[Elias824]

What would you propose we change OP? Obviously there are issues with our government, but these issues are pretty minimal compared to any other country with another form of government. democracy has been more successful at providing wealth and freedom to the masses then any other form of government that come to mind.

 

[bamacre]

What would you propose we change OP? Obviously there are issues with our government, but these issues are pretty minimal compared to any other country with another form of government. democracy has been more successful at providing wealth and freedom to the masses then any other form of government that come to mind.

No other form of government that comes to mind? Not even a Constitutional Republic?

 

[Anarchist420]

I think democracy would work but only if the powers of the central government are very limited, as long as the democracy is very decentralized, and only if there is a legislative branch. They also shouldn't have a democracy be based upon population.

The Constitution was too democratic, even before the 17th Amendment.

Centralization of power and too many enumerated powers are problems, and the Constitution failed to prevent that.

Reinstating the Articles of Confederation with a few modifications would be a good start. I'd take out the ability to amend it, I'd make treaties require unanimous consent and a clause saying they have to be up for renewal every 5 years, I'd include a clause disallowing the Congress of the Confederation from conscripting people to go overseas, I'd include a few prohibitions on the states (no copyright laws, no printing money, no involuntary servitude), and I'd add an article saying "no bank shall loan deposits out with the consent of their owner"

All in all, the Articles of Confederation was a good document, the fatal flaw in it was that it could be amended/replaced. The Constitution, OTOH, is was not such a good document at protecting individual liberty from centralized tyranny. It should've included the bill of rights as an Articles and it should not have been amendable.

 

[biostud]

I'm not suggesting to replace democracy, rather to acknowledge that we have to keep developing our laws and the way we build our society. For instance, is a good idea to have a system that favors only two parties? Is that the best representation of the people?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Since voters tend to favor the short-term (tax cuts and/or additional gov't benefits) over the long-term (manageable debt, for example)

This is why direct democracy is a failure. Our existing system mitigates it a little, but we are still too close to a direct democracy. Repealing the 17th amendment would help a little bit, we definitely need to keep the electoral college.

Maybe restricting most social welfare legislation to the states can mitigate federal budget problems (without the feds being able to force adoption). It can at least contain problems caused by poorly executed social welfare actions to the individual states.

I am not advocating a non-republican system, a representative republic is still my ideal form of government. I need to finish reading Discourses on Livy to educate myself further.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

No other form of government that comes to mind? Not even a Constitutional Republic?

That would be nice. We used to have something like that.

 

[Anarchist420]

This is why direct democracy is a failure. Our existing system mitigates it a little, but we are still too close to a direct democracy. Repealing the 17th amendment would help a little bit, we definitely need to keep the electoral college.

Maybe restricting most social welfare legislation to the states can mitigate federal budget problems (without the feds being able to force adoption). It can at least contain problems caused by poorly executed social welfare actions to the individual states.

I am not advocating a non-republican system, a representative republic is still my ideal form of government. I need to finish reading Discourses on Livy to educate myself further.

Repealing the 16th Amendment and replacing with nothing would also help.

I also favor Amending the Constitution to disallow popular election of electors.

I also favor Amending the Constitution to repeal the Commerce clause, and to define the welfare clause.

Finally, I favor Amendments to disallow both federal and state governments from issuing copyrights as well as not letting the military off U.S. Soil.

I actually think all of those (plus repeal of the 17th Amendment) would go far further than a balanced budget amendment.