54
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 ...
- 15.2k
37
votes
Do people in countries besides the US react negatively to "militarized police"?
There is a lot of confusion regarding the French Gendarmerie, fueled by descriptions like “military police” or “military force with law enforcement duty” which are technically correct but do not fully ...
- 30.4k
24
votes
What is the purpose of democracy?
What is the alternative?
The idea that a cadre party knows the volonte generale better than the stupid masses whom they claim to represent has been debunked. Same for the concept of enlightened ...
- 104k
19
votes
Did any Muslim majority countries express an official position about the treatment of Muslims in China?
They have not, for two reasons.
One, because China has gone out of their way to court Muslim-majority nations to show them how their Uighur re-education camps aren't as bad as Western nations say. ...
- 17k
18
votes
Do people in countries besides the US react negatively to "militarized police"?
New Zealand
Background: Police in New Zealand do not typically carry firearms on their person, despite a longstanding stated desire from the police association to do so. Since 2012 pistols and semi-...
- 1,335
17
votes
What is the purpose of democracy?
Democracy can be lots of things, depending of what you are interesting in:
A way of legitimating the government.
One of the most basic problem of politics is why the people should obey their rulers. ...
- 30.5k
14
votes
Do people in countries besides the US react negatively to "militarized police"?
A (currently WIP) study entitled Militarization and Perceptions of Law Enforcement in the Developing World: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment in Mexico by Flores-Macías, G., & Zarkin, J. looks ...
CDJB♦
- 101k
13
votes
How can a direct democracy, like Rojava, protect minorities from pure majoritarianism?
Certainly belongs in Se.Po, it's a core concern of politics, IMO.
In a mature democracy, not necessarily including, but not excluding either, one like Rojava, evolving under the stress of a warzone, ...
13
votes
What caused a drastic reduction in the population of ethnic Tatars in the Russian Federation?
As a personal observation, a significant number of Russian citizens, myself included, report never being approached by any census agents or submitting census info in any explicit way. It is thus ...
- 12.5k
13
votes
Accepted
How many Ukrainian language schools were still open in Crimea in 2021 compared to 2013?
The website Zmina.info provides the numbers you are looking for. Translation is courtesy of Google Translate:
According to the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, at the time of the occupation, 208,536 ...
- 51.3k
12
votes
What is the purpose of democracy?
It depends what one means by democracy. The past couple of decades have seen the rise of illiberal democracy, in which the majoritarian mechanisms are more or less preserved, but there is a ...
- 133k
11
votes
How can a direct democracy, like Rojava, protect minorities from pure majoritarianism?
In a sufficiently diverse nation, every group of people, by itself, is a minority, and therefore fears a majority trampling all over them. But this means the minorities have a shared goal that ...
- 3,617
10
votes
Why is there so little support for the Minority SafePack in Western European countries, despite them supposedly being pro-multiculturalism?
Speaking as a reasonably politically engaged Brit, I can safely say that the main reason that there isn't much interest from the UK is that most people wouldn't have heard of this initiative.
I ...
- 5,670
8
votes
Accepted
Did any Muslim majority countries express an official position about the treatment of Muslims in China?
Turkey claims Uighurs in China as ethnic Turks. In 2015 "Ankara summoned the Chinese ambassador... over reports that Beijing had banned Uighurs from fasting and worship during the holy month.&...
- 14.2k
8
votes
How can a direct democracy, like Rojava, protect minorities from pure majoritarianism?
Minorities, and any organizations that aim to protect them, need to invest heavily in media and political technology to prevent anti-minority laws from being passed to vote. This should be possible ...
- 12.5k
7
votes
Accepted
Can intentional foreign accent in a negative context be considered as xenophobia?
It can certainly be considered as xenophobia by some - one prior example that springs to mind is in 2009 when David Cameron, then Leader of the UK Opposition, adopted a German accent to mock the ...
CDJB♦
- 101k
7
votes
Is the French public opinion more favorable to Muslims than to Jews?
At least in one 2014 Pew poll the answer seems to be that Muslims are more negatively viewed in France than Jews.
By the way, publishing the results of such polls in France (especially when they get ...
- 133k
7
votes
How did the Asians vote in the "double digit" Asian-minority areas in the Brexit referendum?
According to Parliament.uk figures, there are 122 constituencies with a double-digit Asian electorate, from Leicester East at 58% down to Solihull at just over 10% - these are shown below. Wave 10 of ...
CDJB♦
- 101k
7
votes
Accepted
What is the rationale for Democrats attempting to exempt African-Americans from this Ohio abortion ban?
These amendments were put forward by Janine Boyd. On the website of the Ohio House of Representatives there is a press release in which she elaborates those particular amendments a bit more, writing:
...
JJJ♦
- 38.7k
7
votes
Do people in countries besides the US react negatively to "militarized police"?
Carabinieri in Italy are a military police force, but they are basically indistinguishable from the police, as they have essentially the same tasks. I would bet that many Italians don't even know that ...
- 579
7
votes
What keeps a democracy from disestablishing itself?
Democracies are fragile by nature because they are based on the will of the people. If a majority of the people seriously want to get rid of their democratic system, they can succeed eventually. This ...
- 15.2k
7
votes
Why should Modi (or India for that matter) be concerned about minority rights?
Let's, as you suggested, ignore the moral side of the question and consider realpolitik.
The percentage of a minority in total population is less relevant than their prevalence in a certain region:
...
- 3,668
6
votes
Why is there so little support for the Minority SafePack in Western European countries, despite them supposedly being pro-multiculturalism?
On first glance, this package (never heard of it before) seems to support European minorities only. For instance, they gave the example of Bretons. In my opinion, the diversity and multiculturalism ...
- 724
6
votes
What percent of counties that voted Democratic in 2016 are minority majority?
I have no idea what use this information is, but I was interested in whether I could find the data to answer it, so I gave it a shot.
Using the vote data from this dataset about the 2016 election and ...
- 23.7k
6
votes
What keeps a democracy from disestablishing itself?
This problem is a large reason why some version of High Courts (ex: Supreme in US, Supreme Court in Canada) and a document guaranteeing fundamental rights (ex: Constitution in US, Charter of Rights ...
5
votes
Did Palestinians have an opportunity to assimilate into Kuwait society and culture before the Gulf War of 1990 to 1991?
The Palestinians in Kuwait were very much assimilated into Kuwaiti society pre-1990 becoming a settled part of Kuwait society rather than a migrant workforce. Their situation in Kuwait was seen as ...
- 1,324
5
votes
Accepted
Why is/was the National Liberal Party of Romania opposed to Catholic & Hungarian school when they support a German-minority president?
This is a Romanian perspective
I think there is no actual connection between backing Klaus Iohannis and notifying the Constitutional Court about the Roman Catholic Theological High School in Târgu ...
- 52.5k
5
votes
Did any Muslim majority countries express an official position about the treatment of Muslims in China?
The following countries has officially expressed support to China's position:
Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, ...
- 299
5
votes
Do people in countries besides the US react negatively to "militarized police"?
Unclear
This question should be answered by citing international studies on public trust in police institutions with a focus on militarization. Alas, a cursory search did not reveal any such studies.
...
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