how can we live in a democracy when the people feel one thing and the government does another?

Answer 1

Well I didn't vote for this bunch and anybody who did has only themselves to blame.
First, if voting changed anything, you wouldn't be allowed to do it.
Second, democracy is a ridiculous notion founded on the nonsense that all opinions are of equal weight. Everybody's shout is as good as anybody else's. For some reason that is not true for fixing washing machines, installing telephone lines, car repairs or translation from Finnish but it is true when it comes to deciding on whether or not we bomb Iraq, the ins and outs of the Maastricht Treaty and how we run the NHS, an organisation which employs more people than any other in Europe - except the Red Army.
If you want to take part in this farce you don't have to watch a single news broadcast, you don't have to read a single party manifesto - you don't even have to be able to read or do joined up writing. As long as you can make a big X, you get to decide how my kids are educated and whether some Arab you've never heard of dies today. One shudders.

Answer 2

In a democracy the people's feelings are not the thing represented: their wellbeing is the thing represented. It may very well be (in theory) that elected representatives are expert in this where the people themselves are not. The government may be acting in the best interest of the people, even though they seem to be doing what the people do not approve. When we vote a government into power we in effect delegate to them the statesmanship required of us as a country. If we believe they will not accomplish this, we should not elect them. Don't get me wrong -- I DO believe the government has responsibility to explain and demonstrate their activities, compared with our opinions and wills.

Answer 3

Governments are elected to represent the people. If they fail to do so, then the democratic thing to do, is to vote them out of power. Waiting for the Government’s term in office to be completed, before voting them out of power, isn’t democracy… it is stupidity!

Do the majority of people in the United States have confidence in the Bush Administration? If so, then by all means wait till the next election and vote him back into power. If on the other hand, the majority of people believe the Bush Administration is causing much harm to your country, then it is plain stupidity to allow that harm to continue until the next election.

Voting your government into power is democracy. Exercising your right to kick them out of power if they misrepresent you, is also democracy!

Answer 4

That's why we have to campaign for our rights. The rights of people in the UK were fundamentally changed when parliament enacted the Human Rights Act and ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. Now that Act has fundamentally changed the constitution of the UK. If parliament now introduces a law that infringes those rights or a Minister introduces a regulation that infringes those rights a judge can order that the Act of Parliament or the regulation is unlawful under the constitution, under the European Convention on Human Rights and International law. But unfortunately, laws are bloody useless unless they are policed and we need a Commission to police the Human Rights Act and protect us from our own government - both national and local. MPs are told to vote by party whips - so I joined The public whip to encourage MPs to vote the way we want them to. The link to their website follows - join the revolution for democracy!

Answer 5

Democracy is something that has been long lost in this country. No matter who is at the helm, we the people have no voice at all. All we get served is the same soup with a slight different flavor. Since shortly after this country incorporated democracy has been lost. The U.S. has been a police state since well over 100 years by now.

The person who feels truely free is the one who is most imprisoned.

Answer 6

Well, technically we're supposed to live in a representative republic...

Every government always tells it's subjects that they are free. No totalitarian head of state appears on television and says "My personal slaves, I am the ruler here, you have no freedom, no future, and no choice. Do as I say." Instead they're all smiles (or subsurfaced outrage; the emotional level matches the current conditions.) and they say "My fellow citizens, today we are faced with hard decision, but if we stand together and sacrifice together, we can emerge victorious..." You get the idea.

Answer 7

Its called lobby democracy . Democracy by the few

Answer 8

First, THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY!..
It is a REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC!

The difference being where an elected elite rules as apposed to the people ruling the country.

Answer 9

that seems to be the trouble all down the line, the government are not listening to the people who voted them in office for a better return

Answer 10

ur right. i think they should have a vote everythime something new comes up, like the iraq war for example, if mr blair had asked us 2 vote whether or not we should participate i bet our country would never have got involved. that way it would be fair and he'd be respected a lot more for making the right decisions.