G'day. I Was Wondering - Which Country Does Have The Better Democracy?

I am not talking about corrupted countries. Only the countries that are well known to be have Democracy as part of their nation. So, in this day and age, which country does have the best-well known better Democracy?

European Parliamentary Democracies.

Presidential Democracies are the wrong way imho, look at the hype and doom&gloom in the US, if the majority of citizens think one man can either ruin or rebuild a whole nation, something must've gone wrong...

PS: Asking for countries will result in some kind of popularity contest, with crazy patriots from nations all over the world fighting eye for eye, so good luck here.

reply to post by SiONiX


This thing I see with the American Democracy is that the citizens of America is "closed minded" and "scared-fearing". With Australia, the people are more "open minded".

Ten years ago i would say britain but not these days im afraid. The only thing im proud about in Great Britain is the lack of a death sentence.

H mm off the top off my head ive always admired Australia's government.

reply to post by Elemensa


Thanks.

Firstly, let's clarify exactly what "democracy" means as a word:

Main Entry: de·moc·ra·cy
Pronunciation: \di-ˈmä-krə-sē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural de·moc·ra·cies
Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek dēmokratia, from dēmos + -kratia -cracy
Date: 1576

1 a: government by the people ; especially : rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

2: a political unit that has a democratic government

3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States < from emancipation Republicanism to New Deal Democracy — C. M. Roberts>

4: the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority

5: the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges

Now you can ask "In which country are these values clearly espoused and practiced? I think we can eliminate virtually every single one.
democracy is yet another lie propagated to keep the little man quietly satisfied with his perceived control over his environment.

Switzerland, to my knowledge, is the only country that enforces democratic vote on every occasion. You're obliged to vote there everytime something comes up for decision.

Who knows for a fact that their local authorities work for them? Do you think your city council members have your interest at heart? And your mayor? How about your governor? Your State Rep? Senator? President? Your ministers? Your Prime Minister? So do you live in a democracy? Can you trust your cops, your army and your intelligence agencies to manage your protection?

Democracy is a farce.

Australia has:

- Compulsory voting - so that even groups less likely to assert themselves get to have meaningful input, and pressure groups to get the voters out don't have undue influence,

- An efficient voting system - which means everyone can vote quickly and easily. No queuing for hours or having to vote in religious or private buildings.

- Equal Time on the media for both sides of any political argument at election time.

- Proportional voting, which means small parties have an input on policy, and voting for an unelectable candidate is not a wasted vote.

- The power being in whole parties, not concentrated in a single leader.

- A lack of polarisation and hatred between supporters of various parties, meaning we can have discussions instead of arguments, and learn from each other.

- An abundance of stupid voters and stupid politicians, just like America.


According to many Americans on these boards, America is not a democracy at all.


I don't deny that there may be better democracies than Australia.
I'm interested to see other people describing their own countries.

well what i dont like about US elections is that its all razzle dazzle, fanfare etc leading up to the event.
people dont have to vote yet still whinge about who's in office.
your voting is computerised, ours is paper ballot.
and now, before the president has taken office you already have people trying to bring him down.

USA has a black and white two party system.


as others have said, in australia we have various political groups one can vote for and there is no razzle dazzle leading up to the event

some debating, some advertising on tv, maybe a couple of radio shows.
and if you dont like labour or liberal (two main parties) theres always various others like "family first", or "the greens", "national party" and a bunch of others.

and whoever wins will have his supporters and his haters but you never hear this BS of trying to take him down before he's entered office or any of that school yard bully type crap.

[edit on 6/12/08 by Obliv_au]

For all those contesting Aust is the best democracy, I suggest you read up on 'one vote one value'

It is very interesting. Aust is not without its problems but does its best to fix discrepencies within the electorates.

I feel Canada definitely attempted to resolve many issues by becoming bi partisan... you have definitely got to give them some stars for attempting that...its not perfect but they tried when every other government denied status to the Indigneous Popn's.

*cough... so with respect to that fact, Canada definitely wins.

That big country... doesn't have a great foreign policy and their economy's struggling at the minute... oof, it's on the tip of my tongue... had an election not long ago... black guy won it and it made the news all over the world... a lot of white people not really happy about the outcome... er, it'll come to me in a minute... ah! Zimbabwe!


Looking forward to the 'USA OK!' posts!

Originally posted by Merriman Weir
That big country... doesn't have a great foreign policy and their economy's struggling at the minute... oof, it's on the tip of my tongue... had an election not long ago... black guy won it and it made the news all over the world... a lot of white people not really happy about the outcome... er, it'll come to me in a minute... ah! Zimbabwe!

oh thanks I felt like I was reading one of my own posts... LMAO

->that big country... fantastic. Zimbabwe? LOL hmm well in time with enough sanctions, they may just become the next shining example of what a democracy is.


[edit on 6-12-2008 by Thurisaz]

well i can't speak for other countries, in my opinion Australia's democratic system is at or near the very top.

this topic reminded me of the "2020 summit" that was held earlier this year.

The Summit brought together some of the best and brightest brains from across the country to tackle the long term challenges confronting Australia’s future –challenges which require long-term responses from the nation beyond the usual three year electoral cycle.

www.australia2020.gov.au...


i was wondering if this happens in other countries or was Australia the first?

The US is not a true democracy, it is a representative democracy or a federal constitutional republic. That has it pluses and minuses.

Maybe a one man, one vote system would force people to study the issues more. Right now, it wouldn't work in America.

The biggest problem with our current system is the lack of term limits for Senators and the House. Too much stagnation in ideas/ideology, too much committee power in the hands of too few. Too easy for an incumbent to get re-elected.

[edit on 6-12-2008 by jsobecky]

"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on whats for dinner."
Ben Franklin & Peter Schiff
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regardless of where you live, its sheep for dinner.
Communism, Faschism, Democracy..... Its sheep for dinner.

The "Don Pedros" ingredients for a healthy democracy:

1 Large helping of a "Everyone's Equal" mentality
2 Servings of Hegel's Dialectic
1 Million arguments for us to quibble over

& the final cherry on top, a fully compartmentalized society where each individual cant see 3 degrees of separation beyond there cog in the machine.

Peace

"Complexity is an illusion" Confucius

I just thought it would be a Interesting topic to talk about, because we here all the time on the news. This country has done this, that country has done that. The U.N (which is NOT perfect) could have a Democracy awards for each year, allowing the world to see which country would and does have the better Democracy.

Originally posted by Kailassa
According to many Americans on these boards, America is not a democracy at all.

The US may have been a democracy at one time. Not so much any more, I think. The representatives no longer seem to be "of the people, for the people", if in fact they ever were.

As a friend of mine from Finland observed, the US has exported democracy to so many other countries that it has none left for itself.

The U.S. has never been a Democracy

It is a representative Republic

although, not very representative of it's people



[edit on 12-6-08 by atoms.2008]