Hm, so study discovered hot water, what is new ?
The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
21–30 of 87 posts
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#22How can a country be democratic with only two parties?
I remember reading an economics paper that showed you need at least four suppliers in any market to get real competition. I can't see why politics is any different.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#23How can a country be democratic with only two parties?
This is a direct outcrop of the winner-takes-all electoral district system which forces parties to merge to have a chance at winning. I personally find it an undemocratic, archaic and meritless system.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#24It doesn't look like it got any better since 2014.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#25Hasn't this been obvious for a while ? The US is about 1/5 of the way down an ever-more-slippery slope towards a fascist state. Its much-vaunted "checks and balances" have been shown to be paper tigers, and the constitution it heralds far and wide doesn't seem to be worth the paper its written on. The US already has one of the weakest social safety nets in the Western world, it has military-spec weaponised police wit…
It's been obvious to anyone who pays attention to all the details and thinks hard about their meaning, but that is a small fraction of people.
I think that deep down many people often believe that they could have a say in policy if only they tried hard enough, so their lack of influence is a kind of personal failing.
In reality these systems are designed to absorb your effort and direct it into time sinks that either serve those in power
Want to change things? First "we" need to take back the house by phone-banking for this blue dog
Chip in $5 today to help Chuck Schumer win back the Senate
We're going to "show Trump" with a big attendance at the next No Kings rally
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#26Representative democracy is by nature oligachic. Practically, there was no other way to organize a large state until modern communications technology, so that's very understandable, the critical issue is that the US is becoming less and less democratic and more oligarchic over time while we are more and more capable of democracy (instantaneous communication across the world, very fast travel, universal education, etc…
"All politics is local", which used to be true until perhaps 50 years ago, was the only thing that kept the oligarchs in check. Now the oligarchs can use modern communications technology to organize and consolidate power at the national and even international level. Consider how Rupert Murdoch for example was able to spread his political propaganda from Australia all the way to the US and the UK. Consider also how Jeffrey Epstein organized a global social network of oligarchs.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#27We hear a lot about what is or isn't a democracy but the reality is that very few countries today would ever be above the bar set. Even Athenian democracy wouldn't, as it was a demos of the male citizens only, supported by a large slave class. What is more important is: is it working? And if not, why not?
Which is why, instead of "democracy", it's more useful to quantify democratic . One traditional measure of such is the degree to which political power can be gained through free elections. But the research in TFA instead uses a novel measure: the weight a population has in its country's policymaking. Which yields fascinating results. Because, per the linked research, in present-time USA that weight is ~zero. Which is…
Isn't this partly a question of sheer size of countries like the US and India?
In Slovenia or Denmark, there may be two degrees of separation fewer between the regular voter and, say, an ordinary MP, because the parliaments and government are about the same size, but the population is in single millions. Even here in Czechia quite a lot of people actually know personally some high-ranking politician.
How many Americans are on friendly terms with their Rep or Senator?
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#28How can a country be democratic with only two parties?
I'd like to think that it's twice as good as a one-party system.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#29We hear a lot about what is or isn't a democracy but the reality is that very few countries today would ever be above the bar set. Even Athenian democracy wouldn't, as it was a demos of the male citizens only, supported by a large slave class. What is more important is: is it working? And if not, why not?
This sounds like a more elaborate version of Whataboutism.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#30How can a country be democratic with only two parties?
This is a direct outcrop of the winner-takes-all electoral district system which forces parties to merge to have a chance at winning. I personally find it an undemocratic, archaic and meritless system.
electoral district system? this seems to be very specific and a subset of the topic/problem