You've focussed on one particular democracy, the US, but I don't feel like it is especially representative of democracies in the world today. — angslan
First, to know if a thing is dying, you must identify it. — TogetherTurtle
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.
The truth of the modern nation is that ignorance is exploited for monetary gain and growth of influence. — TogetherTurtle
. But, as we know that with modern marketing methods money can buy opinion and convince people to vote against their own interests, putting more money into the pockets of those who buy the opinions that suit them along with support for the politicians who propagate them creates a self-stroking cycle of concentrating power in fewer and fewer hands, as has been happening, particularly in the US and particularly since the 80s when brand power, both commercial and political, began to really take off. — Baden
"Salty". And kind of "non-responsive". The only good bit was the joke at the end.
OK though, what happened to rising living standards? There's more wealth. Where did it go and why? You tell me. — Baden
For a democracy to function, the people must be free to choose, and those who don't know the truth can't choose freely. — TogetherTurtle
We are all friends here. We are all men of logic here, and if you aren't why are you here? If we ever wish to see the full potential of the human race, our future among the stars, curing disease, becoming even more than we could ever imagine, we have to work together and build a platform upon which our minds can be free. I beg of you, set aside your differences and use the brilliance of man to build us a brighter future. — TogetherTurtle
The solution to liars is to call them out as liars. They get to lie. I get to call them liars. That's what free speech is. It's a bunch of people screaming at each other. Like here. — Hanover
Sure, let's set up a Truth Committee and tell them what to believe. I want to chair that committee. — Hanover
Yes, let's all join hands in unison and sing songs and the world will be hunky dory. Despite all the partisanship, diseases are still being cured. Somehow it's all working, despite our not coming to terms on everything. — Hanover
Somehow it's all working — Hanover
Despite the considerable democratic momentum in 1991, Schmitter and Karl cautioned against the high expectations often placed on new democracies due to popular assumptions about expected results.
“Democratization will not necessarily bring in its wake economic growth, social peace, administrative efficiency, political harmony, free markets, or ‘the end of ideology.’… Instead, what we should be hoping for is the emergence of political institutions that can peacefully compete to form governments and influence public policy, that can channel social and economic conflicts through regular procedures, and that have sufficient linkages to civil society to represent their constituencies and commit them to collective courses of action.”
By focusing on the flexible political mechanisms that democracy provides, Schmitter and Karl demonstrated that the ultimate benefit of democratic governance is the creation of a system where clear rules, accountability, and citizen participation provide opportunities for self-correction. Today, as authoritarian political leaders around the world argue that democracy produces the risk of chaos, Schmitter and Karl’s analysis serves as a reminder that democracy offers the best chance for balancing societal tensions over the long term.
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