DISCUSS ANYTHING & EVERYTHING: Money, Dating, Health, Internet, Legal, Jobs, People, Places and more

Date: Jul 28, 2013

RE: elections are the best test for democracy

Ex-huyton · Senior Member

As we saw in Algeria, and now again in Egypt, problems arise in democracies when the voters make the mistake of electing religious zealots.

Politics and religion should never be mixed. This is a basic and crucial principle, so it follows that democracy should always be secular. In this way ALL of the people in the country are served, not just a segment.

Let religion remain a private matter for the individual and not be imposed on others.

Date: Aug 13, 2013

Anonymous wrote:
si

Date: Aug 13, 2013

Elections are the best test for democracy in certain conditions. Some communities are not eligible to use such tool to reach the best results. In tribal communities for example, democracy is a mean of creating and escalating violence. In addition elections will consecrate divisions and violate the civil harmony.

greenshield · Senior Member

You mean "honest" elections.

G.

Ex-huyton · Senior Member

It is, of course, crucially important that the ballot should be a secret one, i.e. no one knows how you voted. Also that the counting should be correct and valid something that allegedly was not the case in the recent Zimbabwe election, for example. If these requirements are met then democracy can be considered as universally valid.

Perhaps the only exception would be a land where a religion has taken hold so firmly that the majority of the voters choose to be led by leaders of that faith. As we have seen in Egypt, once they are in power, such leaders tend to seize their opportunity to change the constitution and in effect do away with democracy.

The Turkish leader Erdogan, who is currently trying to draw together the lands of the old Ottoman empire so that a new power bloc will come into existence and be under his leadership, has revealed his true attitude to democracy by remarking "Democracy is like a bus; you stay on it until you get where you wanted to be, and then you get off!"