On 2013-11-27 21:04, Cathal Garvey (Phone) wrote:
Methinks you are conflating "elected representation" with "democracy". Election of tenured representatives is only one (failure) mode of democracy, one so terrible the old Athenians likened to oligarchy.
Other modes exist: some have been extensively stress tested, such as sortition (Athens).
Athenian democracy self destructed much more rapidly than American democracy did, and for the next couple of millennia everyone pointed at Athens as proof that democracy was a very bad idea. Elected officials have a very short time horizon. Thus, for example, Obama said a whole lot of stuff that he knew would blow up in his face after the next election, because he was only worried about stuff that would blow up before the next election. This was the big problem with Athenian democracy before its defeat in the Pelopenessian wars, the invasion of Sicily being an example of Athenian decision making ruled by short term political advantage without concern for the longer term consequence of catastrophic defeat and enormous loss of life. Because of this problem, power tends to slide from their hands into the hands of a permanent and unelected elite, which is the situation we now have in America. In the short term this alleviates the problems of democracy, but in the longer term, which is to say now, discipline within the permanent unelected elite breaks down, and they all steal from each other and the public, they succumb to the tragedy of the commons, which is the situation we now have.