• Alsephina@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Well yeah, bourgeois “democracy” is only really democratic for capitalists and not workers.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    A lot of people are saying that bourgeois democracy is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

    BBC, 2014: Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

    The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.

    So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.

    This is not news, you say.

    Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here’s how they explain it:

    Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        Yes, and that’s good. How’s your aristocratic pseudo-democracy, authored by elites (possibly slavers, depending on your country) who feared real democracy and passed down your present system, doing for you and the world?

        Like, do you really look at how there’s massive popular consensus to fight climate change, have better healthcare systems, stop genocidal wars, all of which your aristocratic politicians ignore, and then say “We need less democracy because muh mob rule”??

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        porky-happy

        The capitalist class, Walter Lippmann, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Trilateral Commission’s The Crisis of Democracy would be proud (emphasis mine):

        Al Smith once remarked that “the only cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.” Our analysis suggests that applying that cure at the present time could well be adding fuel to the flames. Instead, some of the problems of governance in the United States today stem from an excess of democracy […] Needed, instead, is a greater degree of moderation in democracy.

        • Kindness@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          Game theory would like a word.

          Considering the smallest non-fragmented group has resulted in the current 2-party system in most western countries, and results in tribalistic xenophobia, I’m quite content stating democracy is not the egalitarianism it is purported to be.

          And I quite resent the insinuation I’m a lapdog.

          • Sodium_nitride
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            7 months ago

            And yet the electoral systems aren’t democratic to begin with. As in, even if you made a perfect electoral system, it would barely be 10% democracy because democracy has little to do with the ability to choose which master gets to whip you every 4 years.

  • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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    7 months ago

    As Churchill once famously said, democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

    I guess one of the nicest things about democracy is that it has a built-in mechanism for removing a government. It may not be reliable at getting good leaders in place, but at least when there’s a bad one it has a way of getting them back out again without having to go in shooting.

    • freagle
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      7 months ago

      Do you have any idea how long senators serve? Racist, violent, war hawk, regressive leaders stay in office in the USA for decades. How about family dynasties? The number of years American and European democracies are managed by family dynasties is terrible. And then of course you have fascists getting elected to high office in Italy.

      All the evidence shows that Western democracies are going to end in violence.

      Interestingly, Cuba has more democracy than anything ever experienced in the North Atlantic. Because the point isn’t to use democracy to get representation, it’s to use democracy to change society in the interests of the people.

      • Jojo@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        How about family dynasties?

        Wait, did somebody say Kennedy?

    • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      I spent way more time than i’m willing to admit trying to figure out what swear the filter was removing.