Imagine if the US became a democracy

[FluffyMcDeath]

I know, there are always the people who will diligently point out that the US is not a democracy but a republic. And it is, a place where the rich run things claiming to represent everyone else. Or, in other words, an oligarchy.
If it walks like a duck, talks like duck, swims like a duck but calls itself a horse ... that don't make it a horse.

 

[Robert]

Imagine if any country became a democracy.
(I'm not aware of any that really deserve the label.)

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Imagine if any country became a democracy.
(I'm not aware of any that really deserve the label.)

Quite true. Democracy seems to be a fragile state, like standing a pyramid on its apex. A historical flash in the pan when ever it has arisen. Large, complex societies always develope a class of people that predate on the productivity of the citizens and the greater the resource base the more disequal the classes become. The bigger the empire, the worse it gets.

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[Robert]

Interesting article all the same.

I'm not familiar with the journal in question but, regardless, the results of the study won't go down well:

The U.S., in other words, is basically similar to Russia or most other dubious "electoral" "democratic" countries. We weren't formerly, but we clearly are now. Today, after this exhaustive analysis of the data, “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

 

[metalman]

The Federalist No. 10

The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (continued)


Federalist papers index page

But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.

 

[Robert]

Seems like the most appropriate thread for this:

Whoever you vote for, Google gets in

Google's lobbying and influence-courting in Washington DC is more intense and extensive than even Google-watchers thought, a must-read Washington Post investigation has revealed.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/17/whoever_you_vote_for_google_gets_in/