All Men are Liars: Is Democracy Meaningless? 1 by Gerry Mackie St. John’s College University of Oxford Oxford OX1 3JP United Kingdom gerry.mackie@sjc.ox.ac.uk April 18‚ 1997 Forthcoming in Jon Elster‚ ed.‚ Deliberative Democracy 2 I. Introdu ction. One current of thought within the rational choice approach to the study of politics asserts that democratic voting and democratic discussion are each‚ generally‚ inaccurate and meaningless. 2 I will call an emphasis on these descriptive
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GOVERNANCE AND DEMOCRACY IN PAKISTAN: WEAKNESSES‚ STRENGTHS AND PROSPECTS Abstract Pakistan had no worthwhile civil society and hardly any middle class in 1947 due to rampant illiteracy and absence of an independent media. The masses were poor‚ the country was described an “economic desert” and there was an unprecedented influx of refugees. The country lacked the necessary infrastructure and institutions. The capability to develop them was lacking. The external and internal threats to the security
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COMMENTS ARE WELCOME. Powers behind control: An essay on democracy Peter L. Hupe Department of Public Administration Erasmus University Rotterdam hupe@fsw.eur.nl To be presented at the Annual Work Conference of the Netherlands Institute of Government‚ held at Erasmus University Rotterdam‚ October 29‚ 2004 Workshop 3: Institutional Rearrangement of the Public Domain 1 Abstract In contemporary Western democracies the role of government is not what it used to be. In the public
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ranking list of WorldAudit.org‚ a leading observer in the field of democracy‚ corruption and human rights. It seems to be a truly democratic country‚ but is it really democratic? Or is it just a country that is not too undemocratic? We will evaluate this‚ by looking at what democracy precisely is and how it is implemented in the Dutch society. The robustness of the Dutch democracy will also be looked at. Definition of democracy According to Locke‚ humans are naturally free‚ equal and independent
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Chapter 4 Ancient Greece Democracy: Then and Now In modern conversation‚ when people hear the word democracy‚ most people immediately think of the late 1700’s when a group of people in what is today the United States of America‚ separated themselves from a tyrannical king in England‚ declared their independence from his rule‚ and fought a war to defend their right to be free. Many people associate the type of Government these brave American’s created as a new idea of democracy. But was it really a
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elections are a form of direct democracy as well as a democratic highway to a representative government .The concept of democracy‚ electoral systems and political parties is cardinal to the modern state but at the same time difficult to define. This assignment will attempt to explain these concepts and amplify the significance of electoral systems as a key pre requisite for democracy. Elections and Democracy Commenting on the concept of democracy‚ Makinda held that democracy can be seen as: “… a way
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Dance of Democracy An era of change has begun. In 1950‚ a democratic government in India was formed. Democracy - a form of government which is for the people‚ of the people and by the people. Democracy - a form of government where the ultimate power resides with the people. Democracy - a gift to our country. Most people reading this would by now have added another exclamation. Democracy – What a joke. In today’s day and time the idea of democracy is dead in the minds of the people. We
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I believe that there were multiple occurrences contributing the end of Greek‚ or Athenian democracy. These back to back occurrences contributed to the weakening of their city as a whole and as a result the eventual end of democracy. Though it seemed like there might be moments of democracy from time to time‚ these events were really the death knell. The most major were the Decelean War‚ the plague and death of Pericles‚ and the Macedonian take over. When Sparta turned its military attentions to
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Essay on Democracy – Its Merits and Demerits (free to read). The English word ‘Democracy’ is derived from two Greek words ‘Demos’ and ‘Kratia’ or ‘cratos’. Demos means crowd and ‘Kratia’ or ‘cratos’ means power. This is why the critics of Democracy have described it as Mobocracy. But in reality Democracy is not mobocracy but rule by majority of the people according to certain rules and regulations which are accepted by the people of a country. In the beginning there was direct Democracy. For
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Elements of Democracy I believe Canada does not have a true democracy. Canada does not exhibit three of eight elements of democracy: political equality‚ common good and human dignity. One of the elements of having a democracy is political equality. Political equality is when every citizen has the right to vote and run for office and to speak on public issues. However the requirement to be able to vote and run for office in Canada is you must be a Canadian citizen and be above the age of 18. I think
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