[lit-ideas] Theory of democracy...
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 14:59:47 -0700
The current New Yorker has a short article on democracy and voting. It points
out that
researchers have found that only 10% of the voters have a clear understanding
of the issues.
The other 90% just guess at it: they vote on whether the candidate has a nice
smile, if the
weather has been good or bad (this alone accounted for several million votes in
the last
election), and so on. 90% of voters are clueless. They hold contradictory ideas
(for
example, they want lower taxes and more services) or not much of any ideas at
all.
Democracy, in theory, sounds good, if everyone were equally rational, but in
reality, it's
no better than having a king chosen by his decendence from Apollo (or your
favorite local
sky god.) In any form of government, the 10% have to contend with the inertia
of the
remaining 90%.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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