![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I have learned how to run a really hot bath in my house. This is a very good thing. It doesn't count as a proper bath unless it steams slightly in my book.
Also, thinks.
Does anyone know any good stuff on modes of government because I'm starting to become cynical about democracy as an idea - watching Blunkett fight with the judiciary and with the Lords over the Terrorism bill has definitely shaken my faith in the whole idea. This is not to say that I think that the House of Lords should remain hereditary - far from - but there must be some other way to choose people to govern than popularity contests and short termist mob rule. What we need are people who are experts in their fields (economists, philosophers, medical ethicists, diplomats, lawyers/judges) not people who want to go into politics - it does seem these days to be a bit of a case of those who can do and those who can't become politicians. I am also suspicious of the (particularly American) almost religious attitude that the West is taking to democracy - we WILL make all other countries democratic or know the reason why!
Basically I feel like democracy is running out of steam or possibly collapsing under it's own weight. The politicians have become so good at telling us what we want to hear that no-one believes what they say any more. Maybe there will have to be a new way of doing things soon - after all, what will they do when less than 50% of people vote?
Also, thinks.
Does anyone know any good stuff on modes of government because I'm starting to become cynical about democracy as an idea - watching Blunkett fight with the judiciary and with the Lords over the Terrorism bill has definitely shaken my faith in the whole idea. This is not to say that I think that the House of Lords should remain hereditary - far from - but there must be some other way to choose people to govern than popularity contests and short termist mob rule. What we need are people who are experts in their fields (economists, philosophers, medical ethicists, diplomats, lawyers/judges) not people who want to go into politics - it does seem these days to be a bit of a case of those who can do and those who can't become politicians. I am also suspicious of the (particularly American) almost religious attitude that the West is taking to democracy - we WILL make all other countries democratic or know the reason why!
Basically I feel like democracy is running out of steam or possibly collapsing under it's own weight. The politicians have become so good at telling us what we want to hear that no-one believes what they say any more. Maybe there will have to be a new way of doing things soon - after all, what will they do when less than 50% of people vote?
More on voting reform
Date: January 14th, 2002 09:40 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)voting a DUTY of citizenship, and not merely a right of subjects.
In other words, failing to vote should be a crime.
There is nothing stopping one from spoiling one's paper
if one wants to make some anti-democratic political statement.
The practical downside to this is "donkey" votes made by people who do not
want to vote; you need to randomize the ballot papers so that
the donkey votes cancel each other out. I realize that mandatory
voting seems strange and illiberal at first, but it could be argued it is a lighter burden on the citizen than taxation is... :-)
-- Damian