Why Does Democracy Work Despite Voter Apathy?

[CAC1001]

Anything larger than a town has to have a representative democracy, or there'd be no way to govern. A democratic system must be structured to protect the majority from the minority and the minority from the majority.

 

[Functor97]

Anything larger than a town has to have a representative democracy, or there'd be no way to govern. A democratic system must be structured to protect the majority from the minority and the minority from the majority.

I would assume that the internet changes all that. I see no reason (besides ideaology) why a "perfect" democracy would be intangible in the next 100 years, even for a country as large as the United States.

 

[truman]

I agree with CAC1001, and there also is the answer to the OP. If the masses really did control the US (and that's how things have been heading), you'd have the mess we are in now. The worst possible outcome for the US would be control by Facebook. The OP was correct when he alluded to idiots and ignorants running the show. But, we've watered down our representative democracy over the course of 200 years and now have almost-direct election of the President (used to be done by state Senates), mandatory-minimum sentencing, elected judges, and other follies. And a big mess.

BTW Alexander Hamilton expressed dire concern over control by the mob, and it's him you can largely thank for keeping our experiment from toppling over much quicker than it appears to be doing right now.

Long term, I envision a return to a more representative form of government. Don't ask me how that will happen.

Oh yeah, here's why it has to happen. Because if it doesn't, we're screwed.

 

[jennex05]

Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.That's probably why it works

 

[ThomasT]

Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.That's probably why it works

Come now, the US is not an example of government of, by, and for the people. It's, essentially, an oligarchy -- government of, by, and for the rich. But the US is incredibly weathy. So, there's lots to go around, and virtually the entire population lives in relative comfort.

It has little to do with 'democracy', imo.

 

[shashankac655]

But democracy has many flaws and doesn't always work.
More important than democracy is the economic capitalist system. The opposite is the state run communist system which proved to be a dead end, and which now only exists in North Korea.

Democracy doesn't work well with poverty.
In the third world there's a large number of countries which are not democracies.

It also might not be best suited for large countries with plenty of internal problems, like Russia or China.
Russia has something in between democracy and dictatorship, while China has a single party non democratic system.
Both however are capitalist countries.

So, in conclusion, there's a large number of cases where democracy doesn't work, and a large number where it does.
As the users of this forum are mostly from democratic countries, we might have a biased opinion about it.

And my conclusion is the same ,even India has internal problems.
naxals
A democratic government is too sympathetic ,it can't take quick and sharp actions in case of internal security and maintaining unity.

The reason why China is so successful is because it could force people out of agriculture and into Industry and manufacturing and so the income levels came up,where as in India you have to persuade people ,that doesn't always works because you can't reason with uneducated people.

 

[lpetrich]

I think that democracy works because it offers ways of defusing political tensions. Without democracy, one has such alternatives as revolution or heavyhanded repression.

Republics can very from a democratic republic (representative democracy) to an oligarchic republic, like the former Republic of Venice and most Communist countries.

Republicanism is sometimes contrasted with monarchy, but there are part-republic and part-monarchy systems, usually a monarch coexisting with an elected council or legislature. Several present-day "monarchies" may better be described as crowned republics, republics in just about everything but name. The monarchs and royal families are essentially professional socialites and professional celebrities.