We the People

Table of Contents Democracy Voting Representation Participation Corruption Conclusions Democracy Taiwan is currently in the run-up for local elections, the world is holding its breath for the American midterms, there are protests and riots in the French republic, the developments in Albania and Serbia, and Sweden held its parliamentary elections that I myself participated in. It seems to me a good opportunity to discuss what the nature of democracy really is, how to create a democratic society, and what pitfalls are common when trying to improve democracy. There are two primary arguments for democracy; one moral and one technical. The moral one hinges upon the belief that human rights, individual freedom, and the consent of the governed is an inherently good thing. It is important to emphasise that this is an arbitrary assumption — there is nothing that makes this inherently true, and we must accept that there are some people (even within democratic society) that do not believe that…