Is Democracy the best system of government?

The best and most efficient form of government would be a monarchy, with a wise and benevolent dictator controlling everything. But good luck with that.

While we have flaws, I haven’t seen anything better, so far.

Actually, communism would be a perfect system for a small, like-minded community, such as a small colony. I don’t see it working on a grand scale, though. You would have to have a nation of people with the same goals in life and no big, personal ambitions. Still, I’d like to sit back and watch how something like that would unfold.
For those of you that think it’s been tried before in the Soviet Union and in China, you don’t know what communism really is. The Soviets liked to call it a communist state but it was little more that a socialist police state controlled by dictators.

Karl Marx…......

Well, yes, true communism sounds like a good idea, but I don’t think it would ever work. (Human nature being what it is…)

I could see it being adopted in a situation, such as say, a Martian colony. But you have to figure that anything such as planetary exploration would be on such a large scale that it would likely be funded by meta-national corporations. In that case were are talking more about a fascist regime pulling strings. In fact, I see a future where people pledge troth to large meta-corporations, and not to individual countries. I think we are heading that way now.

if there are any corporations left…..

I’m a socialist myself. =)

Thomas Jefferson who probably knew a thing or two about democracy once said “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” As the USA has warped into a two-party system these words have proven incredibly prescient. TJ went on to say “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.” In my opinion Democracy does not a perfect government make, but it is a crucial piece of the ideal system. A socialist economic system might be preferable to the capitalist one which prevails in the US, but without Democracy we’d all be a lot worse off.

A “direct democracy” as they had in Ancient Greece is mob rule. I don’t think of a representative democracy that way, though.

@AstroChuck: When has communism been implemented without turning into a socialist dictatorship? That’s what communism really is.

@jessehattabaugh: When has a socialist economic system outperformed a capitalist one over an extended period?

“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”—Winston Churchill

@jasongarrett I didn’t say that a socialist economic system would “outperform” a capitalist one. I said it might be preferable. Perhaps people who live in countries that have free healthcare could explain why.

@jasongarrett how do you mean “outperform”? Do you mean quality of life, or economically? Cause if you mean the first, I can definitely give you examples of a “socialist economic” system “outperforming” a capitalist one.

That’s an interesting question, Celeste00. Can an inferior economy sustain a superior quality of life?

Jesse, I acknowledge that a smaller pie more evenly distributed might be preferable, but I would like to note that nobody has free health care.

@jasongarrett oh by all means. If by “inferior” you mean “with less money than the US”, then yeah, definitely. Look into Sweden’s health care and education system, or most of Europe’s health care and education system.

And my family has free health care. They live in a “third world” country.

Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.

- Winston Churchill

I think our democracy is a good way to protect against a bad leader. The same protections can inhibit great leadership, but great leaders are fewer in number than bad ones.

There’s no replacement for having a good leader though.

With regards to the economy, that’s not really the same as a debate about democracy. Democracy affects the way leaders are chosen and decisions are made. Capitalism is something else, and not really related.

@Fieryspoon do you feel you were protected from this bad leader?

@Celeste00 I feel that the opportunity to pick a better one every four years is a good protection from having him be in charge for the rest of his life.

@Fieryspoon sigh I wish we would have had the opportunity to pick someone else in the first place. The idea of Democracy is supposed to stand for more than just “oh, we kinda get to vote for a president”. It’s sad that it doesn’t seem to all that often.

@Celeste00 it was the country’s decision to choose him the second time, and the country’s decision not to fix the situation the first time. It is unfortunate that we had this president, but the country has reaped what it has sewn. I certainly didn’t vote for him, and our system of voting has lots of room for improvement, but the underlying systems seem to be limited protective measures against such a leader, and the insanity that brought him to power in the first place.

The problem is that you can either have a system that limits the power of a bad leader which also limits the power of a good leader, or a system that allows either to do everything they feel is “right”. There hasn’t been a system developed yet that limits the power of bad leadership, while still enabling the leadership of a good leader.

Furthermore, the definition of good leadership and bad leadership is highly subjective, which is part of the reason the current presidential campaign is so close. If everyone held the same way definition for good leadership, things would be a lot simpler.

@Fieryspoon by “fix the situation the first time” do you mean with a sniper rifle?

@Celeste00 I meant by putting Gore in office, after he won the election.

@Fieryspoon That sounds an awful lot like revolution, which is only supposed to happen when there is no real democracy…

@Celeste00 Gore actually did win the election though, and lost due to glitches in the voting software. By the time it was caught, it would have caused such an upheaval in the country, that it wasn’t pursued. 9/11 then happened, and Bush’s approval rating soared, sealing his term in office.

It’s not a revolution really, Bush just stole the White House, since he didn’t actually get elected to the presidency.

@Fieryspoon “Bush just stole the White House, since he didn’t actually get elected to the presidency.” hrm.. that sounds an awful lot like not Democracy to me… :P

@jasongarrett- When has it ever been implemented, period?

@Celeste00 Yeah, but that’s not an error in the system; it’s an error in its implementation and the enforcement of the rules. I feel that democracy, as a system, provides better protection against bad rulers than other systems.

Best? Probably not. Best so far? Yep.