Liberalism: The theory and practice of:
- freedom of expression
- freedom of religion
- freedom of the press
- rule of law
Democracy: Rule by vote. In its purest form absent a strong Bill of Rights, “democracy” and “freedom” can become euphemisms for tyranny of the majority.
Discuss. 🙂
I recall a comment made in a post to a liberal blog I read, where the commenter snarked that liberals were anti-democracy because they resisted the will of the majority, trying to force the minority’s views on others, especially as concerned gay marriage.
My response was that democracy is not the rule of the majority–it’s the rule of the majority while protecting the rights of the minority. If the majority wants to take away the rights of the minority, that’s not democratic.
Of course by the actual definition of democracy, this isn’t true. But then again, by the strict definition of democracy, I don’t think there’s a democratic nation on the planet.
We have never lived in a Democracy.
The United States is a Constitutional Republic.
A pure democracy would be where all laws are voted on by the citizens. A representative democracy would be where people vote for representatives who then vote for laws. The national government is a representative democracy, but state and local governments are usually a combination of direct and legislative democracy.
However, the United States and every state has a Constitution, interpreted by the judicial branch, that is supposed to be the supreme law. These Constitutions are interpreted by judges who are either directly elected by popular vote or appointed by people who are elected. However, the U.S. Constitution can be changed by the U.S. Congress and the State Legislatures, and State Constitutions may be changed by either a popular vote or a vote of the legislature, or both.
Ultimately, the supreme power in any democracy is held collectively by the majority of people who vote, as they can remove politicians and judges from office or change the law by direct vote.
A Constitution makes tyranny of the majority more difficult, but never impossible.
The obvious objection to any democracy is “what gives other people the right to pass laws that restrict my freedom?” Ultimately, every law is enforced by violence or the threat of violence.
Ultimately, we have to rely on the majority of the population to value freedom to remain free. Constitutions have a way of becoming useless pieces of paper.
President Bush has been acting in ways which make it clear that he believes he can make up the law as he goes along—in other words he is de facto not bound by the law, as any dictator claims.
Well said, Mark. I still remember Bush addressing anti-american sentiments and saying somthing to the effect of “they hate us because of our freedom”. I cringe when I hear that, the truth is they hate americans like Bush because of his arrogant disregard for the law and fairness, the repeated international actions that say “you are bound by the law, but we are not”. Specifically actions like justifying denying of the protections of the Geneva convention and American law to war prisoners by calling them “unlawful combatants”. Or the alleged international black sites where prisoners can be taken away from american legal protections for torture. That says Americans deserve fair legal treatment but no one else does.
Or actions like the refusal of the current administration to remove illegal tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber despite several legal rulings that it must by the North American Free Trade dispute settlement authorities and the World Trade Organization. Once again its as though the Bush-type conservative American believe is that they are above the law and the rest of the world better damn well follow it. The reason Bush is hated is that he doesn’t follow the rules he expects everyone else to. For the same reaon I intensely dislike the anti-gay religious people who feel any lie is justified if it promotes negative believes about GLBTs.
and just in case anyone hasn’t seen this:
https://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2693690
That was rich Boo, thanks for the laugh – very well done spoof. Glad we can still find humor in these issues.
David