Your Government

[Osborn F Enready]

Well, since you left out the only true answer, I will say none of the above.

A Constitutionally Limited, Democratic Republic, with active citizen overwatch of governmental process and legislation is the only real answer. This is only if all human, and civil rights are recognized, as well as the rights of property.

[Mr.Vicchio]

Representative republic

[lsbskins1]

:rolleyes:
The obvious and simple answer is democracy, but democracy is hampered by the same problem that all forms of government, in fact all areas of human endeavor, are hampered by, and that is human beings. Humans are inherently lazy. They long for simple answers to complex problems. They want some powerful other (be it a God or a politician or a general) to do their thinking for them and distil the answers down to a form they can absorb quickly and easily. They do not want to think. they do not want to work that hard. There are exceptions to this rule. There are enough people in the world who want the facts as they are and not the truth as it has been revealed to move humans along, but day to day, and system to system, laziness predominates.

[FIFI]

Almost all concepts of government have there good qualities, and many could work if it wasnt for the inherent laziness and corruption of peoples.
Has anyone seen the movie / read the book "ANIMAL FARM" ? It supports my point.

[castille]

I think Animal's Farm's brillance is not in their anti-communist stance, but in their simple conclusion that people are naturally greedy, lazy, or corrupt (or all 3).

Also, if we get taxed at 70% under a socialist government, do we get to choose where that money goes?

[incka]

I dislike you saying that all capitalism is democratic and all communism is not. I chose the cross between them, because I want democratic communism, not a Soviet style state capitalism but real communism.

[Contrarian]

Quote by: incka I dislike you saying that all capitalism is democratic and all communism is not. I chose the cross between them, because I want democratic communism, not a Soviet style state capitalism but real communism.

The above points at why I voted 'other' (in the absence of an option for market anarchism). Even a 'real' communism would, I think, feel to me like living in a cage. No matter how gilded the cage is, it's still a cage. I flatly do not believe that even 'real' communism would be a good system to live under--if nothing else because systems are for computers. Freedom is for people. I have yet to have anyone show me how 'real' communism would increase my freedom...it sounds to me like a huge overdose of togetherness. A market-anarchist society leaves room for communist (and other) enclaves. The reverse does not, to my understanding, hold true.

[Prometheus]

With my ego? The only good government is a despotism with me as supreme poobah. Long live me. If I can't be king man lets elect Jesus or something - better yet God. I've heard good things about him.

Sorry it's late at night. Disregard the ninconpoop.

[incka]

Market anarchism as in what Chomsky or what Friedman believe, or rather is it just people trading with people or is there still corporations?

[Milton Bradley]

I'm with Pat Henry here.


I believe that we have a Constitutional Monarchy that masquerades as a Representative, Constitutionally Limited Republic. However, just answer the question in my signature.


Just how can we have a Constitutionally Limited Republic, without the Constitutional limitations?


The answer. We cannot.

[Vee]

define democracy - UK democracy, US democracy, Aus Democracy, EU democracy, NZ democracy? which style of democracy and I assume democracy is capitalism in disguise here as its not mentioned and is one of the more patently obvious ones.

Sorry if all this has been said

[Vee]

anyone here live in a stable family unit as all adults - that's communism - so to discredit it on that it has been shown not to work is false.

Anyone live in a stable community with friends helping friends out - that's communism. The issue comes when you try to extend it to larger groups.

It also disproves that human nature is inherently self-absorbed in greed.

Now if you look at economic rationalism which apparently americans call neoliberalism - prices of water, gas, utilities have gone up for domestic users and down for businesses - so if we follow G.Adams statement calling that a brand of socialism, it fails to discredit that too

I shall be voting other - a capitalist democracy mixed with the welfare state to a limited extent and the removal of corporate welfare

[Starboy]

Someone may have already noted this but the poll is missing the form of government that we have in the US which is a federal republic. People call it a democracy but that is a misnomer.

Starboy

[Starboy]

Here is what some of the founding fathers had to say about democracy:

• Virginia’s Edmund Randolph participated in the 1787 convention. Demonstrating a clear grasp of democracy’s inherent dangers, he reminded his colleagues during the early weeks of the Constitutional Convention that the purpose for which they had gathered was "to provide a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and trials of democracy...." • Samuel Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, championed the new Constitution in his state precisely because it would not create a democracy. "Democracy never lasts long," he noted. "It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself." He insisted, "There was never a democracy that ‘did not commit suicide.’" • New York’s Alexander Hamilton, in a June 21, 1788 speech urging ratification of the Constitution in his state, thundered: "It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity." Earlier, at the Constitutional Convention, Hamilton stated: "We are a Republican Government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy." • James Madison, who is rightly known as the "Father of the Constitution," wrote in The Federalist, No. 10: "... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they are violent in their deaths." The Federalist Papers, recall, were written during the time of the ratification debate to encourage the citizens of New York to support the new Constitution. • George Washington, who had presided over the Constitutional Convention and later accepted the honor of being chosen as the first President of the United States under its new Constitution, indicated during his inaugural address on April 30, 1789, that he would dedicate himself to "the preservation … of the republican model of government." • Fisher Ames served in the U.S. Congress during the eight years of George Washington’s presidency. A prominent member of the Massachusetts convention that ratified the Constitution for that state, he termed democracy "a government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices and ambitions of their leaders." On another occasion, he labeled democracy’s majority rule one of "the intermediate stages towards … tyranny." He later opined: "Democracy, in its best state, is but the politics of Bedlam; while kept chained, its thoughts are frantic, but when it breaks loose, it kills the keeper, fires the building, and perishes." And in an essay entitled The Mire of Democracy, he wrote that the framers of the Constitution "intended our government should be a republic, which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism."

Starboy

[Osborn F Enready]

You forgot to include "Constitutionally Limited, Democratic Representative Republic".

It is an incomplete group of choices, but since I can type it in, I will.

My choice, is a "Constitutionally Limited, Democratic Representative Republic" with an armed populace.

[SteveA]

I selected 'other' because I think Captalism is effectively a form of government. It's just a few simple principles with nothing really left to vote on. People would be free to enact a communist society under it, or employ socialism etc. Everyone would be free to own property and set whatever rules they wanted for people using it, or they could pool their resources and create communities based on some principles etc.

I think such a model is best because it's a superset of other forms of government - for example, it allows communism, whereas communism doesn't allow capitalism, or it allows people to create religious communities whereas not all religious forms of government be supportive of others forms of government.

Alternately, almost any minimal form of government, that respected individual rights or even anarchy might work. We'd still progress, as history seems to demonstrate, into a behemoth of a government so starting on the opposite end of the spectrum would give some distance

[ise]

Quote by: Nicole Well thank you to the higher power here for the news flash. Are you always quite so arrogant? :)And I do believe the USA is a democracy, whatever your interpretations may be.

why do you believe that america is a democracy?

either the usa is and iraq will not be, or iraq will be and the us is not as the constitutions have little in common.

added...

Quote by: starboy Someone may have already noted this but the poll is missing the form of government that we have in the US which is a federal republic. People call it a democracy but that is a misnomer.

sorry, starboy answered, but i'd guess not many americans would agree with him. i certainly do not believe the usa is a democracy

[icu]

Any thoughts on a 'Caliphate' model of Government?

Caliphate PDF

[James]

You forgot about a theocracy.

And don't say it doesn't work, it's just like communism: it's a perfect idea, but the people in society aren't going to let it work perfectly.

[Osborn F Enready]

Look at the results of the poll, and you see the problem with America today.

(Yes, I know its not limited to Americans only in the poll)

My point is that democracy is being revived, and having new life breathed into it. This can only be through mis-education, and re-prioritizing. History shows well the bleak future of any democracy, and those with short sight are doomed to repeat the cold lessons of history.

All I know is I am well prepared, and you'll never see me supporting any type of democracy in this country, so if it does happen to win the revolutions hearts and minds, be prepared to clear out all of us last hold-outs, cause its gonne be ugly.

Anyone that doesn't grasp the simple concept that the best for all, is the ability to make their own choices, is just another power hungry mongrel searching for a way to find a seat of power to inflict THEIR will upon others they deem un-equal, un-worthy of compassion, and lower than their own concerns.