And starting to smell like a kleptocracy given the rampant insider trading and leveraging military to influence market outcomes
Klepo-pluto-ano-neo-krato-kakistocracy with a side of extra oligarchy.
All mixed up in a bucket for monsieur.
The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
81–87 of 87 posts
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#82How can a country be democratic with only two parties?
It's more like two collisions rather than two parties.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#83https://www.v-dem.net/documents/75/V-Dem_Institute_Democracy... The US has slid below Hungary in democracy, Hungary was also straight sliding towards dictatorship. Hungary did a 180 though by electing Peter Maygar. Hopefully the US can do a 180 in the midterms. Otherwise it will probably slide in to being a full Oligarchy like Russia. To me this crazy thing is the complete lack of alarm or sense of urgency from Ameri…
> Hungary did a 180 [...] Hopefully the US can do a 180 in the midterms.
One recent US poll (July 2026) reported that the Democratic Party has close to an 8 point lead over the Repuglican Party.
8 points — that's all!
After all the crime, violence, war, corruption and offence to US democracy...
No one observing this thinks that the US will do a 1.8, nevermind a 180.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it is obvious that measure is meaningful though. The US has always been explicit that it doesn't trust the majority of the population to make decisions and has built intentional systems to keep them out. That is still democratic, the people could change those systems if they really put their mind to it, because the power does technically flow from the people if they really put their foot down. It is pre…
> That is still democratic, the people could change those systems if they really put their mind to it, because the power does technically flow from the people if they really put their foot down. This statement applies to absolute monarchies as well; we have many examples from history where the people have "really put their foot down" and won concessions from that form of government. I don't see how this is enough to…
The key thing is whether it is legal though. If we allow that people abandon the rules and do what is possible then any system can be anything. But in an undemocratic system the people forcing a change requires arm twisting beyond the formal channels.
In the US the people can, formally and legally, do pretty much whatever they like if they vote for it consistently over the course of about a decade.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hah! Reading about the way democracy was done in Athens, both are at 0. In Athens, they had some 5000 people gathering together to vote every week on various matters out of the total population of around 20000 (the others were women, slaves and immigrants). The judicial system was organized into 10 courts of 500 randomly assigned people from the above 5000. They regularly forced the most prominent politicians to emig…
> In Athens, they had some 5000 people gathering together to vote every week on various matters out of the total population of around 20000 (the others were women, slaves and immigrants). At its founding, the United States allowed widespread slavery and granted the vote only to white males, disenfranching women and black men. > They regularly forced the most prominent politicians to emigrate so that they do not becom…
On the latter point, the GP is not entirely accurate. Any citizen could be expelled, so long as they had the greatest number of people vote to expel them. The practice was known as Ostracism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracism).
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#86And starting to smell like a kleptocracy given the rampant insider trading and leveraging military to influence market outcomes
Klepo-pluto-ano-neo-krato-kakistocracy with a side of extra oligarchy.
Kakistos = worst. I am Greek and I have never heard such an accurate word for the modern political system.
Re: The US is not a democracy but an oligarchy, study concludes (2014)
#87Any political system regresses to oligarchy. Both a single or all people cannot practically govern, so a few take over soon anyway. The question is, how are these few chosen?