No, it's not. Just the culmination of a laundry list of anti-democratic policies.
Once this (http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/bng2.htm) gets updated, Bangladesh will have the lowest democracy score since 1990.
No, it's not. Just the culmination of a laundry list of anti-democratic policies.
Once this (http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/bng2.htm) gets updated, Bangladesh will have the lowest democracy score since 1990.
Last edited by Loki; 03-28-2016 at 08:21 PM.
Hope is the denial of reality
Erdogan is such a baby. He just demanded the presence our ambassador because a German satire TV show had dared to make fun of him.Originally Posted by Loki
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
He'll probably raise the refugee price tag by another billion.
Hope is the denial of reality
One thing we know, because it's been proven over time, is that democracy doesn't preclude authoritarian rule. Framed another way -- authoritarians can still be elected.
What's interesting about the US is how our "representative" form of democracy has been boiled down to a two-party political system....that dominates and manipulates everything from voter registration to congressional districts, party delegates, super-delegates, and the electoral college.
It's no wonder the wonks and pundits didn't anticipate the popularity of guys like Trump or Sanders.
We had this system since ~1800...
Hope is the denial of reality
No, no it really doesn't. If it had that meaning than the US isn't one even now because you need to be a citizen to be elected for anything. Universal suffrage is not a requirement to be a democracy. Universal choice in who you can vote for is not a requirement. One could argue that direct democracy IS a requirement and that there aren't any genuine democracies in the world because we all engage in some kind of representative or otherwise Republic-style system though that's getting technical and taking jargon over general meaning.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
If he means anyone (within reason) is allowed to run, that's a standard requirement under many definitions of democracy.
Hope is the denial of reality
I don't know if you really misunderstood me, or if you are just nitpicking over the term "anyone". Anyway Loki seemed to got this right.
That's pretty much what I meant. If you don't have that as a requirement, most totalitarian regimes of today's world would be democracies. Almost any dictator nowadays gets himself "elected" from time to time. The big exceptions are monarchs and clerics.
"Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt
Permit me to ask this then. If women could not be elected (and did not have suffrage) would it still be a democracy? Historical usage is a very clear "yes." Ditto for when the vote was confined to property holders. Neither of which would be considered "within reason." You could declare that you're using what would be considered "within reason" for any specific time but then you've got different regions in the world at the same time with very different attitudes still practicing types of democracy. So what is to make that "local context" not apply to states which don't meet your particular standards of reason today? It's not a very good definition.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
We could adopt a somewhat relative standard. The US was deemed a democracy in the 1820s, but there's no way a country with the same narrow franchise would be considered a democracy today (see South Africa under apartheid).
Hope is the denial of reality
Having 50% of the citizen not be able to run for a seat is not a good thing. I would say far from perfect. Still far better than having from having >99.0% excluded from being able to run for a seat.
And I don't think that having women voting and to be voted is better by "local context", it's just more democratic by any context.
"Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen." - Helmut Schmidt
Bump. Interesting re-read.
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