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Forums - Politics Discussion - The Economist Just Downgraded the US From a ‘Full Democracy’ to a ‘Flawed Democracy’

Lawlight on 26 January 2017
Flilix said:
Lawlight said:

You could be right about that. France, Belgium and Japan are all flawed democracies as well. France has a 2nd round election so that could be why. Hopefully the anti-Trump people can see some sense.

I live in Belgium and I think a 'flawed' democracy, like we have here, can be good too. Democracy is the best regime we have, but it's far from perfect. The majority rules in a democracy, but a lot of people have very little knowledge of politics, so they aren't really capable of deciding what's going to happen with their country.
Here in Belgium, every party gets a number of votes (there are quite a lot of parties). Then, a few parties can decide to form the government, if they together have the majority of the votes. This way, it's possible that the party with the most votes is excluded (I assume this is meant with 'a flawed democracy'). This is mostly a good thing though, since the extreme parties are excluded this way.

However, in the US, the situation is different. For example, Trump is already censoring the EPA, because the results of their studies may prove he's wrong.

Obama also issued a gag order but the US was still not deemed a flawed demogracy. I think it's the electoral college system that's caused this. I think Australia is a flawed democracy as well. It is a monarchy after all.



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snyperdud on 26 January 2017

The US is a Republic. It uses a democratic process to elect representatives that vote and draft legislation. It was never a "Full Democracy" to begin with.



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Flilix on 26 January 2017
Lawlight said:
Flilix said:

I live in Belgium and I think a 'flawed' democracy, like we have here, can be good too. Democracy is the best regime we have, but it's far from perfect. The majority rules in a democracy, but a lot of people have very little knowledge of politics, so they aren't really capable of deciding what's going to happen with their country.
Here in Belgium, every party gets a number of votes (there are quite a lot of parties). Then, a few parties can decide to form the government, if they together have the majority of the votes. This way, it's possible that the party with the most votes is excluded (I assume this is meant with 'a flawed democracy'). This is mostly a good thing though, since the extreme parties are excluded this way.

However, in the US, the situation is different. For example, Trump is already censoring the EPA, because the results of their studies may prove he's wrong.

Obama also issued a gag order but the US was still not deemed a flawed demogracy. I think it's the electoral college system that's caused this. I think Australia is a flawed democracy as well. It is a monarchy after all.

I prefer monarchies too. It's not just one person who has a lot of power (the role of kings and queens is mostly ceremonial now).



DonFerrari on 26 January 2017

I guess they also haven't seem any problem with Obama governing by decrees and not passing throught the houses.



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Zarkho on 26 January 2017
Aura7541 said:
Surprised that the article made no mention of how Bernie Sanders was cheated out of the primary by the DNC because that was indeed undemocratic.

THIS.

As soon as I read the title my first though was: Why did it take them this long...?

Of course, the media is interested in bashing Trum since 1. he's an asshole 2. he has openly criticized against big media corporations. But hey, US democracy was fucked up well before this: from unpunished police brutality to spying it's own citizens, from information control and manipulation by the media and the goverment to social protest repression, the US government and factual powers have been messing up with democracy from a while.

So... no big news here, just The Economist being a little late with his rankings.



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the_dark_lewd on 26 January 2017

Trump hasn't damaged US democracy at all. The media and the population have damaged it. Trump's just the symptom.



Ninten78 on 26 January 2017

At least Canada is ranked higher #Team Trudeau



Screamapillar on 26 January 2017

*All* democracies are flawed. We don't need a hyperbolic, sensationalist headline to tell us that. We're not legally nor technically any less of a "democracy" than we were on January 19th.

Should also note that the US is a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. In fact, the Founders detested the very idea of a true democracy. A democracy means mob rule, that the 51% can tell the other 49% what to do. Our system actually serves to protect the 49%.



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AsGryffynn on 26 January 2017
Aura7541 said:
Surprised that the article made no mention of how Bernie Sanders was cheated out of the primary by the DNC because that was indeed undemocratic.

Surely that factored in as well... That's corruption though... 

Green098 said:

Well normally in a democracy the person who gets the most votes wins and the person with the least votes loses. So 'flawed' may be a discreet way to call it.

And so it begins. How long until the economy falls? At this point, their superpower status will fall apart the moment they fail another military adventure (and that will happen in less than a month)... 

It's had some time like that, so this report is way behind schedule... 



TheWPCTraveler on 26 January 2017
Valdath said:

Good job upping the Rothschild count on this thread.



 
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