Thread: Is there a good alternative to democracy?

I would just like to start by saying that I mean something like democracy + not a real alternative, but a refinement. I'm just wondering if it is'nt possible that the current world population, or each country's population for that matter, don't create the need for a better system. If a country has a population of 100 million people and a president is chosen by a 2/3 majority, it means that 33 million people did not get what they wanted, thats enough to populate another country! It seems kind of ...funny?

Any thoughts?

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

Democracy is imperfect by its nature, but it is still the most efficient form of government for letting individuals pursue their own self-interests, which, imho, is really what almost all people fundamentally want. Yes, this sometimes gets misconstrued and people's freedoms are taken advantage of, but I believe that it is by far the easiest political structure to see radical, but peaceful changes.

Although I don't agree with everything Milton Friedman has to say, because he does take too radical of stances sometimes, I think this clip sums up what I mean pretty well.

Not to radical in this clip, but brutally strait on the point. Yeah, it seems that were kind of stuck with what we have, but just maybe a good TI brain will be able to squeeze out a fresh aproach.

Sorry, but I do agree. Democracy or bust. You can see that even with the politicians having to answer to people that are constantly looking over their shoulder they still can manage to be corrupt as hell.

Originally Posted by HiThar

Sorry, but I do agree. Democracy or bust. You can see that even with the politicians having to answer to people that are constantly looking over their shoulder they still can manage to be corrupt as hell.

Thats what got me started, democracy is the best, but not perfect. All the coruption and theft just makes me think that there is room for improvement. Now I have been giving it a lot of thought and I still can't think how we can improve without damaging the main system. Any further thoughts?

The way I see it possibly improving is just a few key points:

- Improving the education system so that the country can make better choices as a whole. Also went this include an emphases on politics / social behavior / government / economics. Right now we teach history every year K-12. I think replacing that with more current events and things that could help people better pick the people that are in power.

- Some regulation on the ties that people in power can have with the media. Right now the people in power are able to influence the common person through putting pressure on new stations that they have major ties to. If we were to somehow able to stop this it would go a long way to being able to spread the word about various acts that should never be passed, and hold the people in power much more accountable.

- I was thinking of something else but forgot it =/

Anyways this is just off the top of my head... I'm sure there are more.

I like the idea of direct democracy and not representative (Switzerland shows the way). Representative democracy is semifascism in disguise anyway nothing that stops politicians from letting down their voters again and again and...

Would like to see the right of vote removed from those least educated first though and incidently that's the top politicians here (in Sweden you attain power by serving a political party for a long time alone...not by actual qualifications. Most politicians here have the mental capability as well as the level of education of a newborn child).

I wrote a lot more here before but changed my mind and removed it. Quite possible people wouldn't appreciate all my true opinions on the matter even here

One big thing I see wrong with democracy is the lack of accountability when running for office.

Politicians are rewarded to make every promise under the sun without any intention or making it happen. When they get into office, they follow through with none of their promises. You do that in the business world and you get sued. Politicians do it and they have professional immunity (or whatever it's called for representatives of state).

One more thing, politicians also don't seem to care much for the future (outside their own). They're allowed to run up huge debts to curry favor to interest groups in exchange for votes and leave future generations paying for the bill.

It seems to be the best we have, but it's not just broken.... It's much worse.

A few reasons why democracy sucks:

Hitler was elected through democracy.
The ignorant masses can and does rule over the intelligent minority.
In the last decade, the US elections were decided by a few thousands of votes and ended up 51%/49% that's basically half dictatorship.
Small parties usually extort the the larger ones with threats of busting the coalition.
Our "leaders" are usually puppets of the strong, not to mention they do more acting and manipulating public opinion than leading.

Government structure didn't really improve since the 18th century and the basis of democracy is the same as it was in Greece more then 2000 years ago.
Now compare that to any other field out there, everything in our life has improved exponentially since the 18th century, a major contribution was by scientists yet politics and government remained the same primitive obsolete self.

There's A LOT of room for improvement in governments, especially when people start to understand nationality is a man made concept used by governments to create cannon fodder for wars and steal their money throgh taxs.
Also, the increase in population and decrease in space in cities require more land to be developed yet our governments restrict us and keep us packed in megalopolises and tell us to stop reproducing when there's enough land and resources on earth for a few more billions.

I think that going back to city state structure would be the best, each region will have it's own government and policies, that means no more huge nations with population that is "stuck" there, if you're unsatisfied where you are, there will certainly be a city state out there that will welcome you. This will give humanity the ultimate freedom of movement and liberty, governments will have be good to it's citizens otherwise, the citizens will leave to a better place.

Note: I didn't spend enough time to research a better solution but there has to be one, this is merely a quick proposal.

---------- Post added at 10:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 PM ----------

Originally Posted by wazzobazzo

I like the idea of direct democracy and not representative (Switzerland shows the way). Representative democracy is semifascism in disguise anyway nothing that stops politicians from letting down their voters again and again and...

Would like to see the right of vote removed from those least educated first though and incidently that's the top politicians here (in Sweden you attain power by serving a political party for a long time alone...not by actual qualifications. Most politicians here have the mental capability as well as the level of education of a newborn child).

I wrote a lot more here before but changed my mind and removed it. Quite possible people wouldn't appreciate all my true opinions on the matter even here

I actually would very much like to read your honest opinion.