Democracy is a very inflated word.

On September 18, 2008: Former prime minister, Tony Blair

participated at John Steward's Daily Show. Listen to this interview

where they agree that there has never been a war between two democracies. Is that correct? What about Georgia and Russia?

Professor Stein Ringen at UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Social Sciences Division has recently written a book why democracy -- Hvorfor Demokrati

He was interviewed about the book. Here are some subjects mentioned in the book:

• The development of methodology has not come very long in the social sciences.
• Economists have come much further in their development of methods.
• There are more democracies on the earth than ever.
• The quality has declined of the old democracies. E.g. There is a confidence gap between those that rule and those being ruled.

Related Link: Democracy Now! | Radio and TV News

Also in the same subject area an interview I saw today with Francis Fukuyama about his book:

The End of History and the Last Man

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Of all the choices, democracy at least theoretically represents the will of the people. While I wholeheartedily support democracy, in practice it is not utopian. Personally I call it 'The Santa Claus' effect. At least in the US, and this race for the Presidency is NO exception, each candidate promises things that frankly they have no business promising.

Is there anything these turkeys won't say to get elected?

How often do we hear the question, "how exactly are you going to fund that initiative?"

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There are some good Churchill quotes here:


Winston Churchill Quotes

1. It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
2. A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
3. A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
4. In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.
5. It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
6. Never, never, never give up.

Freedom of speech is very important in the USA, and that may be the reason you handle problems better than most nations.

There is one exception, be careful not to be named a socialist / communist. I am a socilal democrat. In USA, I think I would have been called a socialist.

Now, your government are socialicing financial institutions. Some call it financial socialism. If communism shall ever be introduced (for a while - there is nothing new under the sun), Mr. Market (the worst dictator you ever meet) will fix it. That can come after a periode of ultra liberalism sometime in the future.

<Sidenote about the (Mr) market in a free economy>
There is a Russian author that wrote something like this. If you sit in a car on a narow slippery road in the mountains you have to rely on the driver. What do you do if you suddenly discover that the driver is mad? Mr Market can sometimes be very mad and unpredictable, especially when he is in the depressive (corrective - bear) mood. In the manic (bull) mood everybody likes him. If people say: "I don't understand this market", then Mr. Market is in the depressive or corrective state. Some depressive states are worse than others, especially just before Mr. Markets enters a new long term manic phase.
</Sidenote about the (Mr) market in a free economy>

I think there is some relevance in what the professor (see my first post) said in that interview. The quality of the old democracies has degraded. There is an increasing gap between those that rule and those that are being ruled. Do we observe that in this financial crisis? In sum "bailing out Wall Street" but not "bailing out main street" expresses the message in a compact form.

Litterature:
John Kenneth Galbraith : "The Culture of Contentment."

That title is translated to Norwegian as "Den tilfredse majoritet" that literally retranslated to English becomes: "The satisfied majority."

That book has even been discussed at our Parliament in relation to our policy for home owners etc.

Page search (CTRL + F) Galbraith here:

Møte tirsdag den 11. februar 2003 kl. 10 (2002-2003)

and here

Møte onsdag den 13. juni 2007 kl. 10 (2006-2007)

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Thomas Jefferson: A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

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But the 'father' of the Constitution is James Madison and in that document reflects the concept of checks and balances with a countermajoritarian Supreme Court. To take away enshrined rights is difficult to say the least, you need to get an Amendment which is procedurally very difficult.

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