liberal democracy
stop! unbunch your panties! untwist them. whatever the right verb is. sit back down. drink at least 8 ounces of cold water. now relax, and pretend you can have a civil conversation about this - or at least that you can read or listen civilly while I monologue. fret not! a liberal democracy is the same thing as a Western democracy (probably not a WestWorld democracy). AFAIK, the United States was the first, set the model, and continued to be one right up through the Barack Obama presidency. I have little hope of it surviving a Donald Trump presidency, but that remains for current events to elucidate. the Weimar Republic was a liberal democracy. so was the French Third Republic which lost so disastrously to the Germans in 1940. the British government is more or less a liberal democracy. what the heck then is a liberal democracy? well, despite my prejudice, I'm going to use the Wikipedia definition and description. it is a form of government in which representative democracy operates under the principles of classical liberalism. (more Wikipedia: "Classical liberalism is a political ideology that values the freedom of individuals — including the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and markets — as well as limited government. It developed in 18th-century Europe and drew on the economic writings of Adam Smith and the growing notion of social progress.") what does all that mean? it means the government is limited, and has its powers separated into three branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. the government's job is to effect the rule of law in everyday life in an open society. its main function is to guarantee equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all citizens. it relies on free, fair, and competitive elections between candidates of more than one party. typically it has a constitution, a document that defines the government, grants it powers, and protects its citizens from the government. again typically, it has universal suffrage. at least, this is a description of a more or less ideal liberal democracy. in practice, liberal democracies put most of these ideas into practice in one form or another. the United States sometimes has this form of government and sometimes keeps the form of the government but practices a more "conservative" version of the government, with reduced human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, and political freedoms. it seems to hinge on the Supreme Court. since the Warren court (1953-69), the court has mostly been on the side of the individual, of the citizen. lately it has drifted onto the side of the corporation, which means onto the side of the very, very wealthy. the Donald Trump presidency may undo everything the Court has done for us since 1953. me? I appreciate the Warren court and its interpretation of the constitution. thank you, everyone who contributed to it. damn, I hate to see it go!
No comments:
Post a Comment