Posted on 03/18/2009 12:04:37 PM PDT by SolidWood
And originally it was also restricted to property (and often slave) holding white men.
In the generally accepted use of the term today, America is most certainly a democracy. I’m going by dictionary definition, not definitions based on political philosophy or political history of ancient republics.
Here’s a couple of dictionary definitions:
* the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives.
* a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them.
I’m assuming we both agree these definitions describe, at least in theory, the American system.
The primary meaning of a word is determined by the way most people use that word. If they misuse it long enough, the meaning changes.
So Greece has been a democratic republic for 2500 years?
This would have been quite a shock to the Diadochi, Romans, Byzantines, Slavs, Crusaders, Venetians, Ottomans and others who ruled the area for 95% of this time.
Representative gov’ts only last as long as it takes for the voters to figure out how to vote themselves largesse from the treasury,
and as long as it takes for those being elected to figure out how to get around any prohibition of them doing so.
By the 1830s America had pretty nearly universal white male suffrage. That’s precisely why Tocqueville spent months traveling this country and then wrote a major bestseller about it (Democracy in America).
He saw democracy as the wave of the future, even in Europe and not without qualms, and was fascinated by what it was like under such a system. Note he didn’t go to Britain, which was still heavily dominated by aristocrats, to find out what life in a democracy was like.
That theory is based on the somewhat exploded idea that society always consists of a pyramid, with a massive exploited underclass, a smaller middle class and a tiny elite. In such a case pure democracy is indeed likely to result in the underclass outvoting their betters and deciding to share the wealth, in the process of course destroying the very economy they’re trying to loot.
I’m not sure it applies equally well in a society shaped like a diamond. The massive numbers in this country are in the middle, neither at the top nor the bottom. There aren’t enough destitute voters to vote to destroy the system.
Anyway, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Gotta be optimistic, ya know.
We have a Teleprompter in Chief that is attempting to squeeze your “diamond” into a “pyramid”, then destroy the capitalist system while looting it.
“If they misuse it long enough, the meaning changes.”
Then it is way past time to STOP MISUSING IT!
It is important that this does get corrected. This country was founded as a Republic and we are paying the price now for turning it into a Democracy.
you mean the TOTUS?? (teleprompter of the United States)
Yeah, I’ve seen that moniker.
But it might be a little too obscure for most libs to get -
they’ll understand the mockery of “Teleprompter in Chief”.
*MEGA-SIGH*
If only.........
That is precisely why Conservatives should not refer to our country’s political system as a democracy.
Continuing to call it what it really is is the only acceptable way to describe our Constitutional Republic.
“So Greece has been a democratic republic for 2500 years?”
No, but they had the oldest democracy. They were first.
The Dutch Republic was no democracy. Even more than the UK at the time, it was an aristocratic oligarchy. Somewhat more representative than the absolute monarchies ruling most of Europe at the time, but not a democracy.
I hate to beat a dead horse, but it seems pretty clear to me that Hilary was speaking about which continent had more continuous history with democracy at this point in time.
I’ll let the argument over whether Athens was really a democracy slide, although no American today would consider them to qualify, with probably well under 25% of the adults allowed to vote. But ancient history has little to do with whether America or Europe has more continuous history with democracy at this point in time.
Greece, for instance, was a military dictatorship as recently as 1974.
Not completely. The American colonies also looked in their own back yard. IIRC, John Locke also travelled up to Canandaigua, New York and discussed the Iroquois Nations form of Republic, which only women could hold office.
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