Quote:
Originally Posted by Jazzman
Seriously. You don't consider the U.S. a democracy? I really can't offer any response here because I have no idea how to discuss that issue. It's like denying that a horse has four feet. So, yeah...
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Note: I added a question mark at the end of the first sentence as I believe that was a question, not a statement. If I have done this incorrectly, I apologize.
It's splitting hairs in my opinion (saying that we do not live in a democracy).
Technically, the basis of our political system is a
representative democracy - we elect leaders to make decisions for us on the majority of the issues (some issues, such as Constitutional amendments do require a vote of the people, but the majority of the decisions are made by the elected officials). We elect these leaders based on the perception that they will make the decisions that we expect them to make. Unless a government representative is elected by a unanimous vote (as highly unlikely a scenario as one could ever find), that elected representative is by nature not voting on behalf of all his or her constituents (i.e. - that representative is not acting on behalf of the people who voted for his or her opponent). This is the basis for the argument that we do not live in a democracy.
A "true democracy" has all of the affected persons (you and I) voting on each and
every issue that comes to hand - a logistically impossible scenario in all but the smallest of entities.