[EM] proxies and confidentiality

[RLSuter at aol.com]

The US is not a democracy, but that's not a good thing at all,
though it's not something I would expect Walter Williams to
understand. It depends, of course, on how you define
democracy, and not even all of the founders agreed on
it, nor did they all disdain democracy by any means. Williams
is simply wrong about that, as he is about many other things.
Unfortunately, the definitional problem still as controversial
today in many ways as it was 200 years ago. If you define
democracy as majority rule, then that is consistent with
majority tyranny, which is a bad thing. But hardly anyone
today who favors democracy defines it in that simple-minded
way. In my view, a good short definition is equal power
to determine what the outcomes of major decisionmaking
processes will be, combined with minority rights that
prevent majorities from exercising power in ways that
are significantly or routinely detrimental to minorities.
By that definition, you can either have democracy or
some sort of minority rule, which might be fine if you
are in society's ruling class, though even that might
not be so fine if it led to violent or destructive conflicts
of the kinds that minority rule has so often resulted in.

-Ralph Suter

In a message dated 3/1/06 10:30:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
election-methods-request at electorama.com writes:

<<  Quoting Paul Kislanko <kislanko at airmail.net>:
 > (this is what has happened in the US over
 > the last 8 years to make the US the mockery of democracy).
 
 Aaarg...The United States ISN'T a democracy - at least not
 yet and let's hope it never truly becomes one.
 
 For more info, I might recommend reading:
 
 How to create conflict
 http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/walterwilliams/2006/03/01/188010.html
 
 "The word "democracy" appears in neither of our founding documents -- the
 Declaration of Independence nor the U.S. Constitution.
 Our nation's founders had disdain for democracy and majority rule." >>