A bit of political philosophy

I have not found as many down to earth discussion on actual philosophy as I had hoped to on this forum. Seems like people discuss Jungian psychological theories on here more than anything: discussing the meaning of dreams, global consciousness, ect. That's the biggest reason I'm starting this thread, but for the sake of conversation I suppose I'll have to put forth a topic

Democratic Communism. It may sound a bit surreal, but if you ignore the conditioned dissonance between communism and democracy, you'll realize that the two are actually quite compatible. Hell, they were made for each other! If the mob rules (democracy) then should they not serve the mob (communism)? We could easily settle most every major decision that we allow the Federalis to make through a vote in this day and age. It would be no more costly than our current process of electing state and federal officials, and essentially exterminate political corruption.

So, that's the subject at hand. An American, democratic communism. How would it function, what would it look like, what would be the cost of implementing such a thing; these are all questions I'd like to see addressed. I won't put many of my own views on the subject in this OP, but only the discussion has begun, so as not to turn this into a critique of my views on the subject rather than a discussion of the subject. Instead I will simply lay some talking points and let what happens happen.

1. In a democratic communism the need for politicians is drastically reduced, since the highest they could go is simply championing a certain issue or issues on the ballot in an upcoming vote or more practical positions concerned with city, state or federal upkeep, records and finances.

2. The biggest reason we (as in the west, especially America) shun communism is that we believe strongly in a merit based work environment such as the free market provides. For whatever reason most of us ignore the fact that we could easily modify communism to allow difference in wages depending on an individuals performance. Tax breaks for above average quotas?

3. How much control can the government actually have over industry if we are to hold true to the basic principles that this country was built on?

Feel free to stray as far as you wish from these few talking points. Anyways, there it is. Who wants to hash out the idea?

I'll take the liberty of straying and say ..why not tear it all down ? None of these political models have gotten very far , ...American system of a republic was corrupted very early and the idea of democracy is moot ...as long as money plays a hand in politics WE Don't have a democracy.

Communism is already a very important part of 'democratic' nations. The airline and automobile industries would have fallen over long ago if it was not for state sponsorship. They both receive regular payments in a convoluted and negotiated process to help preserve the face of capitalism, but are purely part of the communist ideology. The 'too big to fail' is just another example of this.

Economic incentives and appropriate management of resources is very much part of capitalism that does work, it out performs over the centralised control of communism and grid lock that sets in. The Award system here in Australia has provided a very good balance between the capitalist and socialist ideologies. The harder your job, the more you get paid. This system is still lacking when it comes to executive salaries and the conflict of interest that sets in when you can write your own salary, but progress and discussion is still continuing.

As for democracy it is really struggling at the moment. I do consider that democracy died with JFK and the subsequent cover up. Recent wars have gone against the democratic will as covert support for dictatorships and subversion of democratic processes has grown. Another problem is how can you hear any voices in the noise of millions of people? The internet is aiding in allowing expression, learning and merging of ideas but still needs a more cohesive and transparent structure in terms of governance.

As for the idea of democratic communism, if the nation has the resources then it is important that everybody does have access to basic water, food and shelter. If people then want to go out and get their iPads, mansions and big cars then they do have to work for it. Then there are people like Bill Gates, how he could profit so hugely from minimal investment is exploitive of the system. In a communist system he would have been cut down long ago. He still may have been a multimillionaire, but not gotten to the stage where he now has billions to play with. The money behind Monsanto and many others would also have some serious investigation and explaining to do.

One of the big problems that will be faced by any new system is the issue of corruption and how it can quickly turn around the best of intentions to the worst of actions. Culture does play a part in this and being able to recognise it as a common or exploitive practice does help in coming to terms with it.

reply to post by paleorchid13


That's thing though, if we were to vote on issues and decide as a nation, bribery would be near impossible. How do you bribe an entire nation without doing it publicly by providing some great service to the society in question?

It is obvious that our republic is slowly eroding away to an empty shell, thanks to corporate campaign contributions and backroom bribes. It's time we accept that both communism and socialism are things we should (and indeed, already do) learn from and utilize. I do believe in the ideals our forefathers based this democratic republic on, but in this day and age its far to easy to get a man to sell away his scruples for some material comfort or the other. It's high time we tweek the system, evolve or grow stagnant.