Is democracy necessarily a good thing?

Question

Let's take liberty and capitalism out of it, is the system of "rule by the people" a particualrly good thing? Would it be better to have a well run autocracy?

Answer 1

A benevolent dictatorship is a theoretically ideal system of government. Democracy in many African states is merely a facade for internecine squabbles. In many cases authoritarian rule is far more politically viable than a democratic system. Consider Iraq, a state formerly ruled by on of the world's most vicious despots. Even under such a tyrannically oppressive government, there were distinct benefits. Saddam suppressed internal Sunni-Shiite conflict, bolstered national pride (shattered during the first Gulf War), and served as a buffer between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran. While I do not advocate Baathist rule, I do acknowledge a silver lining to it.

Another example of authoritarianism as an effective political system is Lee Kwan Yew's Singapore. Now one of the most prosperous nations in Southeast Asia, Singapore developed under a non-democratic system.

Pakistan, for example, has experienced remarkable eocnomic growth under Pervez Musharraf's leadership. He has doubled GDP per capita since he outsed Nawaz Sharif.

Answer 2

"Rule by the people" and democracy are not necessarily the same thing. "Rule by the people" can also be "mob rule". The United States has never been a true democracy. It has always been a republic where the citizens elect other citizens to represent them. This set up the first instance in the history of mankind a country of "self governance".
It worked and worked well until the industrial revolution. Then greed and avarice took over. Until the industrial revolution, the US was an agrarian society and adhere to Jeffersonian principles. Then, along came the corporations. Corporations don't do well under democratic controls. Well, they could but they simply don't want to. Corporations want a free hand to do whatever they want much as they could under Hitler.

The United States form of self governance was a wonderful thing but, I'm afraid it's days are numbered. Nikita Khrushchev said it best, "There is no need for us to go to war with you. Your decadence and greed will cause you to fall from within".

Globalism is the next step in the evolution of government. It will encompass and control us all.

Answer 3

Democracy only works for an educated electorate. During the French Revolution, majority rule degenerated into mob rule because the citizens were uneducated and untrained in the subtler aspects of governance. Sometimes voters need to understand the "shades of grey" that exist between extremes, or that a certain degree of "give and take" is necessary for compromise. What we are seeing right now in the U.S. is the result of our declining education system, coupled with the outright rejection of learned opinions by passionate but less well-educated patriots. Autocracy is a very bad idea, for which there are many historical examples - absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Answer 4

As mentioned by many people already, the United States is a democratic republic, which is different from pure democracy.

No political structure is 'necessarily' a good thing. Only 'good' point that should be valued over other things would be system wide guarantee of maximum happiness for maximum number of people and human dignity for all. There are a number of cases in human history where systematic slaughter of foreign or domestic population was committed under perfectly reasonable rule of democracy.

The fact is, 'democracy' is closer to philosophy than an actual political machinery, an ideal rather than form. A state with strict autocratic rule might develop their own emergent mechanic which might be very similar to democracy, and conversely a democratic republic might develop an emergent mechanism of autocracy. The only way to uphold the ideal of human society under any political form would be relentless soul-searching and learning toward the ideal of betterment of humanity. And some formats of democratic government happens to lead the way since they tend to provide most of its citizens with tools and resources for such pursuits.

So, in the end, democracy is about as evil or good as a screwdriver.

Answer 5

In the US democracy is chaotic. You have a two party system which is one better than Northkorea. How democratic can such a system be? In my country we are currently governed by a four party coalition. It is widely felt that they conned themselves into power. Everything sucks now as they simply became the parties they had always been right after they won the election. This is the main problem with with any democratic system. The politicians can BS themselves into power with money. It is capitalism that, in its purest form, is totally antidemocratic. In such a pure capitalist state everything is available for money including power. Thus no rule of the people. Even the US knows this as they introduced some of the harshest anti thrust laws in the world. Laws that are anti capitalistic.

People can be manipulated and controlled by politicians. And when the people gets to say who should be in charge and the people has been manipulated their choice of ruler may not always be the best choice. Don´t forget that Hitler came into power through democratic elections.

But, as mentioned, democracy is the most succesful form of government by far. But it has to be a free democracy with free press and freedom of assembly. Mugabe claims Zimbabwe is a democracy. Nobody buys that. Nor is Russia. You speak up there you die mysteriously.

Answer 6

The biggest problem with an autocracy is that even if you have a good "king" the first time, how is his successor chosen? Is it divine right again? What if the next "king" is bad?

The advantage of it is the government is streamlined. Choices are actually made and not politicized.

Democracy is chaos, most places have a Republic. This is better for fairness, but is extremly inefficent because of politics.

Answer 7

Democracy is chaos. It is a bad thing. In the US, we have a representative republic. People get elected and make laws that govern our country. The system works.

There is no such thing as a well-run autocracy. It is not possible for one person to decide what is best for everyone. Odds are most subjects would not agree with the autocrat, no matter what his rulings might be.

Answer 8

Autocracy is rule by a single person, a dictator.

Democracy is definitely better than an autocracy for most people. Unless you are the dictator. Then it is pretty sweet I suppose.

I think "well run autocracy" is an oxymoron. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Answer 9

This country is a republic. A democratic soceity is 51% rule 49% that isnt what this country was founded on. Individual rights and liberty is what this country is suppossed to be.
Lets educate ourselves and be patriots instead of conservatives,liberials,democrats or republicans. We are the people for the people. The more we divide ourselves with labels the less that can be gained. The elite in power love that we use labels and divide each other. The ol power elite saying is "conquer and divide" their plan is going well. See link below.
Information is Power know what the power elite know something you will never get from TV news.

Answer 10

Alexander Tyler said, "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." -RKO- 08/26/07