-- At 11:30 PM 10/27/2000 +0300, Sampo A Syreeni wrote:

in most modern countries the electorial process is practically guaranteed - and in fact mostly designed - to in essence round out dissent.

It is an inherent problem with any democratic system, that it must be designed to produce and enforce a single definite decision on a multitude of matters where "the people" do not have any one clear opinion. This leads to the well known voting paradoxes. Thus democracy is inherently biased towards statism, towards imposing a single solution from above on everyone, regardless of their diverse desires. One solution to this is severe limits on the power of the majority. The government should require a ten to one majority for any use force. To collect taxes, incur debts, or expend money for any purpose, or to make war, should require ten yes votes for any no vote. The problem is that those whose job it is to enforce such limits on government, personally benefit from escaping those limits, thus all attempts to limit government ultimately fail. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG j+h/l7f0pDDoNI1phEWOzQWEulQg7v81oOiTA5n 4PoHTxaUuw6KBxhk0rYlIfCoHe+OyO2n2pjyTMuMx