The exception this time is more an attempt to get back into the habit of posting something that a response to this particular topic; though democracy is something I think and talk about a lot so I was particularly interested in this opportunity to discuss it further.
Oddly, despite my interest in this topic I took no notes during the discussion. I will try to explain why.
The discussion was seeded by a short presentation on the history and status of democracy and we were then asked to consider the threats and opportunities for it. What I felt was missing was any definition of democracy or any argument for why it is necessarily a good thing and without that foundation the conversations were very superficial.
There was also the false assumption that democracy is ok now but is threatened by people like Trump. Whereas we already have a system where a lot of people do not register to vote, even more do not vote at all, the Government frequently breaks its own laws, media is controlled by a few billionaires with very firm agendas and the judicial system is ineffective because it is swamped.
Yes, we should consider things like maximum terms for elected officials, people's panels and other voting systems but they are all just minor tweaks to a failed system.
For me, the bottom line is the world is in a nasty state (global warming, poverty, oppression, etc. etc.) and democracy has no answer to any of these and may well have caused most of them. We should judge democracy on the results it achieves for society and not on whether we like the people who get elected or not.
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