Questions tagged [democracy]
For questions about democracy, a system of government in many countries involving citizens voting, as opposed to dictatorships and other forms of government where normal people don't have control of what it does.
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What factors lead to a 2 party vs a multi party system
When looking around the world it seems that some countries only have 2 parties that get any power e.g. the USA and then you have other countries that consistently have power shared among multiple ...
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Can illiberal democracy be considered a mature democracy?
According to this article illiberal democracies are becoming fashionable these days:
PRINCETON - Nearly two decades ago, the political commentator Fareed
Zakaria wrote a prophetic article called “...
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Developments leading the Western society to "post truth" / emotions (vs. facts)? [duplicate]
Recent events end elections (U.S.) have shown that people increasingly tend to believe that
Perception is reality.
In other words, emotions seem to have gained a lot more importance during the ...
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Berkeley Riots: Protest or Infringment of Rights
The violence that preempted the talk of a prominent alt-right speaker on University of California Berkeley's campus has set off a debate over the role of free speech in American society. Did the ...
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What are the advantages of the French two-round voting system against a one round alternative?
In regards to the French Presidential election of 2017, what are the advantages of the French two-round voting system against a one round alternative?
If two-round is better than one round, what ...
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What would happen if a (democratic) government does not honour a court ruling?
What would happen if a government does not honor a ruling made by a judge?
An example would be US President Trump's Travel Ban, which was recently suspended entirely by a federal judge.
Note: This ...
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Is the U.S. still a democracy now that the President lost the popular vote?
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, Democracy can mean rule of majority.
Is the U.S. still a democracy now that Donald Trump is leading the executive branch while he lost the popular ...
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How often have majority parties plummeted in support in one election in democracies?
While voters in democracies usually only incrementally change the party that they support relative to a prior election, every now and then, a party will go from being a leading or majority party, to ...
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What mechanisms exist to prevent democracy turning into ochlocracy or tyranny of the majority?
From Wikipedia on democracy:
According to political scientist Larry Diamond, democracy consists of four key elements: (a) A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free ...
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What electoral mechanisms might prevent the rise of a demagogue?
I realize that this may be one of the intentions of the US Electoral College system. Its most obvious role is to prevent a candidate of purely local appeal from winning nationally, but another de-...
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Are there any countries that require political parties to be democratically organised (and accept members)?
In many countries, members of parliament are elected on the title of political parties. For example, in The Netherlands, 81 parties have registered for the Dutch General Election, 2017. In most of ...
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What did Kerry mean with "Israel can either be Jewish or democratic – it cannot be both"?
What did the Secretary of State mean by this dichotomous ultimatum?
Israel can either be Jewish or democratic – it cannot be both.
Why should it be incompatible?
If England, Denmark and Greece ...
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Do public referenda overrule political rights, or are they an expression of democracy?
Margaret Thatcher famously opined that "referendums are the tools of dictators and demagogues".
Strangely the position today seems uncannily similar to the days when Edmund Burke penned his ...
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What would happen if all the Western states imposed embargo on the products from China? [closed]
Donald Trump's protectionism is certainly controversial but to at least some degree, all the Western states lead a similar politics towards the North Korea, Cuba or Russia. China, on the other hand, ...
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In a democracy, who takes care of the interests of the losing side?
There are two sides or more to an election - the winning side will get what it wants (hopefully) the losing side will not. What are some of the ways both sides can benefit or do they have to wait 4 ...
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Term for using immigrants to gain long term political advantage
Is there a term that defines the process of a political party or system bringing in immigrants (legal/illegal/refugees) to make them citizens in the future with the expectation that they will support ...
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Why did Aristotle refuse democracy?
I've read a book about antique political systems and I read that Aristotle refused democracy because he didn't support the idea of the rule of the poor. Here's my two explanations of this statement:
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Why are the poor in the US not submitting propositions about taxing the bank accounts of the wealthy?
Just a little explanation: I was raised in the former Soviet system, then I lived through the systemic change, and now I live in the US. I understand that the US is a semi-democratic country. I ...
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How long in advance are designated survivors chosen?
In the premiere of Designated Survivor (2016), Tom Kirkman is informed in about 10-15 hours prior to the state of the union address in which the president, vice president and others were killed.
Is ...
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The causal relationship between economic development and democracy
Some politicians claimed that there is a causal relationship between economic development and democracy. However, India is a democratic society but their economic development is extremely poor. Is the ...
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What alternatives exists to Democracy Index?
I am aware of the Democracy Index.
What it lacks that I am interested in is more information about what type of political system each country has, and the connection to its democratic level. I would, ...
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A Parliament with many Houses with restricted competence
Please forgive the naivety of my question (and adjust the tags if necessary, I'm a newbie).
Often, election campaigns are dominated by one or two themes. Populist parties profit from this. One ...
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What precedes the end of a Democratic Government? [closed]
Democracies allow people to participate equally, whether directly or indirectly, though there is a significant level of variation in how they are implemented.
I expect that a democratic form of ...
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Judicial Independence in Turkey
In the aftermath of the failed coup in Turkey nearly 3000 judges were "sacked" among them two members of the constitutional court (source for example this Washington Post article) as well as many ...
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Does NATO membership require democracy?
The Telegraph reports that Erdoǧans post-coup purge may force NATO to suspend Turkish membership:
This prompted John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, to warn that Turkey faced suspension from Nato ...
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Protecting a democracy from an influential few
According to some opinions I have read, the recent referendum in the UK was won by a small number of men in politics and media, who immediately after the result disowned some of the major claims and ...
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What is the difference between a Republic and a Representative Democracy?
What is the difference between a Republic and a Representative Democracy?
Are these the same thing and merely an issue of semantics, or is there a functional difference?
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Voting methods that take voters stability into account
Consider the case of Brexit: a relatively brief moment of voting time that decided the state of UK in EU. One shot.
Is this a good idea? Let's consider these factors:
Voter stability: were voters ...
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How do one party governments say that they represent everyone even though they aren't democracies?
In China, for example, the communist party says that they are the worker's party and that they represent the workers of the world and equality, even though they manage a one-party state that blocks ...
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Create a System of government that uses the Stack Exchange system to make decisions
Stack exchange seems to brilliantly and concisely match an answer to a question and more key has a great way of ranking the 'correct' or most efficient answer based on merit or efficacy.
Can we ...
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Democracy without Education?
I will keep this brief.
I recently had a discussion with my Chinese friends. Their argument against implementing more democratic elements in China was the large fraction - in their eyes - uneducated ...
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Issue-Specific Knowledge Tests For Voting
I have often wondered if it would be worthwhile for ballots to verify that voters understand the issues they are voting on, and whether this could be achieved objectively.
Case in point: I had a ...
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Vote amount according to "intelligence"
My friend and I had a vivid discussion about politics. We discussed about a system in which people had to go through some sort of intelligence evaluation system. According to their intelligence level ...
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Is it possible for an established democratic country to directly switch to a monarchy?
Say, a country has well-established democratic doctrines and principles. Is it practically possible for that country to directly switch to a monarchy? By practical, I mean the country must last ...
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What limitations to freedom of speech are there in France?
The question is similar to this one:
Freedom of speech is understood to be fundamental in a democracy. What limitations to freedom of speech are there in France? Is holocaust denial an example? can ...
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What limitations to freedom of speech are there in the US and Canada?
Freedom of speech is understood to be fundamental in a democracy. What limitations to freedom of speech are there in the United States of America and in Canada? Is Holocaust denial an example?
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Are there any bodies or agencies that collate UK polling data?
I used to use UK Polling Report but recently their updates have become more infrequent and I'm not sure how much I trust the analysis or selection of data. Are there any other sources from which I ...
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How do proponents of the "Living Constitution" view respond to the argument that it undermines democracy?
Those who reject originalism as a judicial philosophy generally say that the Constitution is a "living document" which changes in meaning as society changes. Further, they believe that the Supreme ...
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Does the two-party system create a political advantage for the rich? [closed]
Does the two-party system create a political advantage for the rich regarding political representation?
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Should the right to vote and/or be voted for be restricted to the educated in the information era? [closed]
To me it seems only logical to expect in the information era some duties behind the rights to vote and being voted for, such as having a minimum of education, regardless whether you were given the ...
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Successful non-democracies?
Those of us in the US, and I'm pretty sure this is true in many other first world nations, are indirectly preached the gospel of democracy in school. It's pretty much implied that Democracy is the ...
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Is a consitutional monarchy really a democracy?
According to Wikipedia, the United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with a parliament. Basically meaning a monarchy that is restrained by constitution with a parliament that makes the rules, as ...
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Does the EU have any rights to oversee UK elections?
If members of the UK electorate were to report issues with the UK electoral system, and parties, persons and/or agencies related to it, would the EU have a legal right to investigate and if so what ...
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Why dictators in middle east are US allies? [duplicate]
US considers itself as pro-democracy, even intervene other countries internal affairs with excuse of democracy. On the other hand in middle east dictators are US allies.
Maybe one can consider Saudi ...
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why does south africa educate their population about gay rights, if the population itself doesn't want that?
to provide evidence about the populations attitude towards LGBT rights:
Although the Constitutional and legal system in South Africa
theoretically ensure equality, social acceptance is generally ...
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What is Trump's official line on Freedom of Speech?
According to the Evening Standard and IBTimes, a satirical nude portrait of Trump has been banned in the US.
Is this true, and has Trump given a formal statement on his views on Freedom of Speech?
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Is China considered to be democratic [closed]
Does China's government consider itself to be democratic?
Does the United States of America have an official stance on whether China is democratic or not? If so, what is it?
Does the UN have an ...
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What is the term for this kind of democracy? Does an example exist? [closed]
I'm curious what the official term is for a nation that, while still is a democracy, has a citizen body that votes on almost everything in one way or another unanimously. Of course, everybody can make ...
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Do democratic and dictatorial governments have the same incentives?
A democratic government can ignore the results of an election at any time. Just like a dictatorship can chose to adopt the same policies a democracy would, minus elections. In both cases, the ...
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Why do dictators always repress their people?
For example what's in North Korea right now - people are given minimal privileges - why is this?
Aren't there some country which is both democratic and dictatorship? Like there is a single person ...
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