If democracy is really just mob rule, as some have suggested, what is a better alternative?
by 
Fiddle Playing Creole Bastard
ANSWERS: 15
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"Mob rule"? I think not. ;-)
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Pure democracy would be mob rule but it rarely exists in a pure form. There's that pesky Constitution for example. . I've quoted this before but here it is again: . True democracy, according to Jonah Goldberg, is the process where 51% of the population can vote to pee in the Wheaties of the other 49%.
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The better alternative is a Republic which is what the United States is. A Republic protects the individual rights of a person from being taken away by Democratic "Mob Rule" The founding fathers knew this which is why they created a Republic rather than a Democracy as both types of government were considered at the time.
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a pure democracy, where the poeple have 100% of the power and vote on every decesion, that has the potenial to become mob rule, which is exactly what the founding fathers were afraid of, as they themselves were the minority (not racially) which is why they created a republic with certain features to protect against mob rule, such as the electoral college
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Democracy isn't mob-ruled so much as majority-ruled. And in reference to the US government, we actually have a democratic republic, whereas the people do not directly rule, they elect representatives who make decisions on government on the public's behalf; and of course the people have the right (and responsibility) to remove from power those representatives who no longer best serve the people who elected them. Any theory of governing, however, is only as good as those individuals who remain involved.
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A republic.
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A Republic, where the people elect a delegate to carry the message of their will. This allows a buffer of time and debate and tempers the "passion of the moment" voting that a direct democracy might produce. Actually a very very cool idea when you think about it.
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A mix between communism and democracy
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I think it was T Roosevelt that said democracy was not perfect, but that it was better than any alternative.
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Despite this 'Death to America' fad here in the US, the current republic system is still the most efficiant type of government humanity has come up with so far.
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what? these two words are not mutually exclusive. One is greek in origin the other is latin. but the two ideas are virtually the same. res publica (concern of the people) demos kratia (rule of the people) democracy doesn't mean mob rule it implies representation inherently
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Not the tyranny of the majority argument! The simple fact is that all governments have the potential to seem tyrannical to those outside of the selectorate. There is no form of government or anarchy that can overcome this. Look at our Great Republic. The number of people tyrannized by Bush's administrations seems comparable to the number tyrannized by Obama's. This is unavoidable, but democracy at least aims to minimize the number of people tyrannized--"pissed", if you will--by necessarily extending the selectorate to the smallest possible majority and then favoring that selectorate with the greatest allocation of public goods.
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The best alternative is one where I am unilaterally in charge of everything. =P
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A republic were hopefully level heads prevail. Although that don't seem to be happening with our current leadership.
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Hm, a telepathic network.
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