Quote:


Quote:


USA is not a democracy, it is a democratic republic.




(Marc said)
I’m sorry, but you’ve lost me completely here.

‘Democracy’ means (very broadly) that it is the people who decide who they are governed by using some form of fair voting system. Surely, this applies to the US of A?

The only democratic republic I am aware of is the DRC, not much of a model for anyone!




Hi Marc

Just a clarification on the theory. Am not pushing this view. Only reciting the theory.

Pure democracy-- "two wolves and a sheep voting on dinner." Or one could turn it around-- "two sheep and a wolf voting who will starve to death". But after you add realistic zeros to the numeric quantities, it gets more bizarre. In the USA 300 million population, a pure democracy could be "150,000,001 wolves and 149,999,999 sheep voting on dinner." Just the tiniest majority would grant right of the majority to totally victimize the minority.

The USA founders were students of history and the theories were discussed at length back then. It was generally acknowledged that historically pure democracies had not persisted very long. It was also generally acknowledged that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". If a 150,000,001 slim majority gets absolute power over the other 149,999,999, it would corrupt just as thoroughly as the corruption of a sole Nero or Caligula. Mob rule.

The republic idea is to divide power into many places so that nobody gets anywhere near absolute power.

* A constitution which enumerates certain things that NO level of government can do to the citizens.

* Enumerate powers that Feds can do, versus powers conferred on states, counties, cities.

* Split the Fed into three relatively co-equal branches. Rock paper scissors. Judicial, Executive, Legislative. The guys who write the law can't enforce the law. The guy who enforces the law can't write the law. The guy who spends the money can't allocate the funds from the treasury. The guy who collects taxes can't set the tax rate. etc.

* States and most counties/cities have similar power decentralization.

* Set up the rules so that NOTHING can be done quickly. Have rules requiring a lot of time and effort to change anything big. I see this as the same as a damping time constant in a feedback electronic circuit. If an electronic control circuit responds too quickly, it tends to over-track and oscillate. You avoid the oscillation by slowing down its slew rate, its speed of response. In government, allows cooler heads to prevail (in theory).

Unfortunately, people have been busy for the last 234 years gradually removing many of the safeguards, so we get closer to a true democracy all the time. And democracies historically do not last a very long time.

James Chandler Jr
http://www.errnum.com/