122
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When is a democratic vote actually the wrong tool?
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
~ a quote commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin
So, to answer your question:
When is a democratic vote actually the wrong ...
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119
votes
What did Kerry mean with "Israel can either be Jewish or democratic – it cannot be both"?
That's not what he said. John Kerry said:
But here is a fundamental reality: if the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic – it cannot be both –and it won’t ever really ...
- 90.3k
113
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Why am I being asked to vote?
There are two possible interpretations here, the cynical and the optimistic.
Note that I am not naming any specific parties and for the purposes of this answer am not taking any side.
The cynical: ...
- 1,955
108
votes
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How do the Republicans' recent laws make it harder for Democratic voters to vote?
There's a bevy of tools being used but they boil down to a few basic categories:
Close polling stations in key neighborhoods, forcing longer trips and longer lines at polling stations where voters ...
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106
votes
Why is lobbying not illegal in democracies?
Let's take a moment to visit how the word "lobbying" came about. In the British Houses of Parliament, there is an area called Central Lobby (between the Commons and the Lords), which is where members ...
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97
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How can democracy not be the rule of the poor?
Voters voting by habit, not by analysis.
Many people vote the same way their parents voted. Other vote exactly the opposite way. Neither involves analysis of their objective economic interest.
A ...
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91
votes
What would stop a representative democracy becoming a dictatorship?
The only obstacle between a government by the people and a dictatorship are the people.
- 10.8k
90
votes
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Why don't US presidential candidates get thrown into jail by their opponent during election?
The simplest answer is that a US President can't just arbitrarily throw anyone in jail. (At least overtly: we're not talking about covert ops here.) About the most a President could do would be to ...
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90
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Paying people not to vote at all
Some problems I can see with this idea:
Unbalanced incentives
In point two, you claim that this system would encourage votes from people who "understand the value of the vote", but is that ...
- 1,504
90
votes
Why am I being asked to vote?
A democracy derives its legitimacy from voters. When elections are won by tiny margins, but huge numbers of people don't vote then there is a problem.
US turnout is below 60% for presidential ...
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87
votes
Why is the US listed as a "flawed democracy" in the Democracy Index?
The Economist Intelligence Unit (a subsidiary of the Economist group best known for its publication) publishes its Democracy Index every year. It seems that the latest, 2021, requires registration, ...
- 4,644
83
votes
Is there a link between democracy and economic prosperity?
The premise of the question that Ghana does not do well despite being a democracy appears to be flawed.
Ghana became a multi-party democratic republic in 1993. Since then:
The GDP increased by a ...
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80
votes
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What would stop a representative democracy becoming a dictatorship?
Most democratic countries have a constitution which says how the state functions and what kinds of laws can and can not be made. Laws which contradict the constitution are usually declared invalid by ...
- 78.9k
71
votes
How is North Korea democratic, if there's only one party with one ideology?
North Korea is far from the only example. Wikipedia lists a couple of other countries which claim to be democratic but are not, according to 'Western' standards:
Many countries that use the term &...
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71
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Why is the House of Lords retained in a modern democracy?
Why is this institution continuing as a component of a democracy?
Sixteen Reasons
The House of Lords has been defanged (with several rounds of reduced powers), denying it a true veto of legislation ...
- 88.3k
69
votes
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Why don't politicians get fact checked immediately?
Fact checking is neither easy nor instantaneous.
The time taken to fact-check even a simple statement and do it thoroughly is measured in hours, not minutes.
For example, let's take one of Trump's ...
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61
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Why are stenographers still employed and present within many governmental chambers?
I wasn't able to find an answer online, so I called the Office of the Clerk of the House to ask why they use stenographers instead of electronic recording devices. They gave me a list of reasons:
To ...
- 24k
59
votes
What is the purpose of democracy?
What is the purpose of democracy?
It's more a philosophical question than a political question but let me try a brief answer:
First, it's a reasoning bias to imagine that things always exist for a ...
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54
votes
Why is Singapore placed so low in the democracy index?
It scores 6.22, a flawed democracy.
It scores low on "Electoral Process and Pluralism" (4.83) and "Political Participation"(4.44). Essentially the politics of Singapore are ...
- 124k
53
votes
Why are there so few impeachments in western democracies and so many votes of no confidence?
One is an expected form of power transfer, the other is not.
In a parliamentary democracy, each representative has a mandate from their constituents, and only in aggregate can they form a government. ...
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52
votes
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Can the U.S. technically be called an oligarchy and a democracy?
All modern democracies are representative; it's for purely pragmatic reasons hard to see how a large community could govern itself directly by the people without introducing representative ...
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51
votes
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What is the difference between democracy and ochlocracy?
Both democracy and ochlocracy are forms of government where political activism by citizens is tolerated as part of politics.
The difference is that a democratic state follows its legislative, ...
- 78.9k
51
votes
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Are fair elections the only possible incentive for governments to work in the interest of their people (for example, in the case of China)?
The CCP is in a strange position. They are nominally Communist, but they've largely jettisoned its economic prescriptions (because they don't work). They're a one-party state (more or less ...
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51
votes
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Is Iran considered a democracy by the Western world?
It's difficult to answer this in a comprehensive fashion, but generally I think the answer is (a qualified) 'no'.
E.g. Freedom House:
The Islamic Republic of Iran holds elections regularly, but they ...
51
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How can democracy not be the rule of the poor?
The answer by o.m is good.
I would like to complement:
Democracy is the rule of the majority.
This is an oversimplification. Although democracy includes majority votes in parliaments or referendums,...
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50
votes
When is a democratic vote actually the wrong tool?
Democracy works for decisions where (a) everyone is equally informed (or at least there is no reasonable way to exclude the ill-informed) and (b) everyone is equally affected by the outcome.
So, bad ...
- 2,099
50
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How is North Korea democratic, if there's only one party with one ideology?
Just because a country calls itself something doesn't mean it's true.
Point of fact, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is said to have four false statements in its name:
It's not democratic, ...
- 1,955
49
votes
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How can the influence of wealthy individuals on democratic processes be reduced?
Many countries adopt some variant of solution (3):
Putting restrictions to the usage of wealth in political situations. This solution is used in many western states, but is of course a violation of ...
- 11.5k
49
votes
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Why am I being asked to vote?
Even if some people don't vote, wouldn't the interests of the nation be properly (statistically) represented by the people who do get out and vote?
This might be true if the actual voters are a ...
- 11.9k
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