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So the Public is Stupid and Ill-Informed | 33 comments (33 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: So the Public is Stupid and Ill-Informed (none / 0)

I don't believe every nation on earth either wants or should be a representative government.

This is a fascinating question to me. If there is such a thing as "human nature", it would seem that some forms of government would be a better match for allowing the full flowering of that nature than others, and we should support the spread of the best possible government (not necessarily ours, of course).

Or are some forms best under one set of circumstances at meeting human needs, and others best in other situations? For example, might an autocracy be best when a society as a whole is at a low place on Maslow's hierarchy of needs and a freer system when resources are more available? Look at how many nations tried to establish democracies in the post-colonial period last century, and ended up autocracies (and many of which then ended up trying democracy again...). What do these examples tell us?

Franklin said "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety," but then, portraits of Ol' Ben uniformly show him to be well-fed.

Ecological collapse is already happening. Your resentment of the word doesn't change the fact that it is occurring.

by Knoxville Progressive (green_planet_2000 (at) yahoo (dot) com) on Fri Jul 25th, 2008 at 10:35:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: So the Public is Stupid and Ill-Informed (none / 1)

I'm not sure the hierarchy of needs is the right metric.

If a country is ethnically and religiously capable of stability then representative government is preferable. It can even help ethnic and religious minorities accept their minority status if their rights are respected and they have some representation. But if there is too much acrimony or the majority is seen as illegitimate, then you need to put security first, and that involves curtailing people's freedoms. It's actually kind of rare to have a country with enough homogeneousness to function with full minority rights and full liberty.

Even countries like Spain and Ireland have had trouble achieving this.

by BooMan on Fri Jul 25th, 2008 at 10:44:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

So the Public is Stupid and Ill-Informed | 33 comments (33 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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