“I think this is one point where the government does represent the people, actually the only point”
-Syrian Friend of Chirol’s on how Syrians feel about Israel.
“I think this is one point where the government does represent the people, actually the only point”
-Syrian Friend of Chirol’s on how Syrians feel about Israel.
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Gabriel Mihalache
December 18, 2005
12:00 pm
It just goes to show that democracy is topic-neutral therefore not a very good form of social organisation. Ask most economists about the harm done by the views of the economics-uneducated populace concerning fiscal policy, State intervention and the desirability of economic planning.
Regardless of all its claims to the contrary, Liberal Democracy is ill-equipped to say no to its citizens, even if they ask for mass murder or the initiation of a economic business cycle like that which led to the Great Depression.
Chirol
December 18, 2005
12:21 pm
Dan tdaxp
December 18, 2005
2:05 pm
If Nazi Germany was a democracy, you might have a point.
To salvage your post, you may say that democracies can turn into non-democracies.
Democracy, by giving the people the right to fire their rulers, is a great way to accurately reflect the powers in a nation. The people's will isn't important -- that the real powers can say NO is.
The Great Depression wasn't the result of a business cycle -- rather, purposefully hyper-deflationary policies in London and Washington. Technical idiocy does damage, regardless of the form of government.
Indeed, technical idiocay is another argument for democracy. If at almost any time in American history the smartest technocrats were given total power, the result would have been a disaster. Thank goodness for the wisdom of democratic crowds!
Gabriel Mihalache
December 18, 2005
3:48 pm
Communism and Fascism have always been rather popular because most people are unaware of the implications of such policies, but rather stop at the platitudes they are served.
There are, of course, countless theories regarding the causes of the Great Depression. In any case, most authors agree that it was caused by attempts at "fine-tuning" the economy, by government officials eager to pander to the population's irrational and irresponsible demands for price stability, full employment and so on.
Central banks generate huge problems from economic activity, and in the end for the survival of civilization, but their actions are the direct results of democratic pressure to tweak or otherwise control the economy (i.e. other people's rights and property).
Even if I were to grant you the point that the democratic process selects the politics demanded by the populace (which I won't), it doesn't follow that what gets selected are good politics. If history is any guide, the democratic process selects the worst policies and men.
Keynesianism is to this day a darling of the political class, although refuted by most credible economists, because it emphasises present consumption, the very thing demanded by union demagogues and, in a sense, the population itself.
Economic prosperity is achieved through saving, careful investments and labor. Show me a population that would vote for that rather than fast-and-easy State handouts!
Chirol: Churchill doesn't impress me much. :-)
Chief Wiggum
December 18, 2005
10:16 pm
YEAR.....................................PERCENT
May 20, 1928..........................2.6%
September 14, 1930..............18.3%
July 31, 1932........................ 37.3%
November 6, 1932.................33.1%
March 5, 1933...................... 43.9%
So, they were not brought to power by a majority of the German electorate. They came to power by making a coalition with another party. The Nazis became more popular after they had been in power for awhile as the economy improved, and more during the first years of the war when things were going well.
Gabriel- since you are not impressed by Winston Churchill, can you identify someone you are impressed with, and why?
Dan tdaxp
December 18, 2005
10:37 pm
That's good, because I don't believe that.
The democratic process selects against the politics reviled by the populace. It gives the public power to fire legislators, not power to legislate.
Kirk H. Sowell
December 19, 2005
6:43 am
This is not to say that the governments created the problem, since the mindset predates the founding of the post-independence governments. The underlying phenomenon is primarily due to the political psychology of Islam: Jews and their religion are perfectly tolerated as long as they submit to Muslim rule, but Jews living next to the umma (Islamic nation) ruling themselves is an offense. The mindset has existed long enough that it has become part of the culture, so it exists for even the non-religious.
Second, there is also the universal tendency to react against those with whom one culturally identifies. This is true for Westerners, Slavs, Muslims, etc. - everyone tends to view global conflicts through the lens of cultural or civilizational identify. There was no rational reason for Arabs outside a very small geographic area to fear and hate the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s - even given the grandoise designs of some Jewish extremists - but that outlook was prevelant anyway. Arab governments have accordingly taken the issue and run with it.
The Brussels Journal
December 21, 2005
12:18 pm
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