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richardhutnik on 22 April 2013
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badgenome said:
richardhutnik said:

As opposed to a non-Democratic Representative Republic, which is an unresponsive oligarchic collection of elites that aren't responsive to the wishes of the people?  Ultimately, either the government is responsive to the wishes of the people, or it isn't.  If you say "democracy is garbage" you don't want a government responsive to the people, but responsive to something else, and catering to a few.  Of course, you could the argue various forms of Minarchist, all the way out to anarchist, but that can end up turning into a battleground of abilities, complete with losers dying off.  Of course, seeing this (as most people do), ends up causing you to want to have SOME government out there, for SOME form of protection.  

Well, I am a minarchist, and I don't want a government that needs to be responsive to the wishes of the people. The government is not a genie and should stick to executing its one legitimate function - protecting the rights of the citizenry. Ideally, there would be no way for the majority to veto the rights of the minority or to award to itself special privileges at the expense of others.

If you do have any democratic principles at all, then eventually the people will end up causing their will to be imposed and unless the bulk of society agrees to things out of bounds, than either the will of the masses will rule, or the will of oligarchs on top will rule.  Thing about the "protection" is everyone will use power to get what they want in the name of "protection".  Banks needed to get bailed out so the economy didn't go down.  Businesses need tarriffs and subsidies in order to be protected from harm.  America has to go into nations to protect this interest or that.  To prevent problems from popping up, and protect people, there is initiatives done, nd things like welfare, to protect people.  There is disaster relief.  The need to protect people and their perceived "rights" ends up with a government that will forever grow.  

So, you can speak to "ideally" but the problem is that we live in what is.