20230415 : dinausour democracies...?

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Don't worry, I am not getting into whether one country or the other has democracy 🙂

My thinking of late is no country in the world has democracy belonging to this century.

Folks may claim to have the world's oldest democracy, or largest, or most diverse or most modern etc., etc. The are all democratic maybe but democracies of past centuries. Dinosaur democracies in my view.

In all the democracies and democratic processes I know, we elect a party or coalition of majority into power to rule the nation.

All parties have a manifesto (a party or coalition mindset). It could be called Left or Right, conservative or liberal, green or some other colour, labour or something else , etc.

But what if I am not alined with any single party's mind on every issue. I might be agreeable with one party's thinking on human rights, another party's religious beliefs, another's views on health, yet another's on minorities etc. I don't have a way for that thinking.

I think the societies also have got shaped over centuries based on that line of thinking and alignment. "Because I am this party this is what I think, believe and support " types.. 

I totally understand why it has evolved that way. There was simply no other practical way to get people to participate in some way and represent themselves in the process.

But today, we have the tools, access and reach, mechanisms etc. to vote an idea individually and not a party/ coalition.

I think the current powers in most countries are belonging to my past generation. They will not entertain this thinking. They simply can't relate to it. 
I feel my generation is also not going to be able to - my generation has grown up largely in a group/ herd mindset.

However, I think my next generation, who have been born in a world on individual choices, individual preferences, individual everything will be more conducive to this line of thinking.

With some luck (and a lot of will), they might be able to take on the dinosaurs of yesterday... 

Comments

  1. Vinod KD14/4/23 18:29

    ...and then there's the other extent of the problem - the singe issue voter. But the idea of being aligned with one party on one issue and another on a different one is not new. That used to be the point of public discourse, choosing different candidates at the central vs local level, and so on. Could it be that we live in too polarized a world now that we are rediscovering things?

    Your idea of "democracies of this century" is intriguing. Reminds me of this person who asked chatgpt to rewrite the declaration of independence, adjusted for today's grievences: https://old.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/12ktb1h/i_asked_chatgpt_to_rewrite_the_declaration_of/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sreekanth22/4/23 14:49

      yup, old concepts which were ahead of their time or simple not having the tools to implement then and possible now...

      Delete

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