Second twenty in twenty, again… – Democracy

It seems to be self evident, democracy is the fairest system of government. Taking on board everybody’s views and then making decisions accordingly. Of course, there will be differences in opinion. Disagreements based on different values is inevitable and democracies have varying ways to deal with this. Namely, the vote. Putting representatives into government that have values that align with your own is the standard approach. One would think that would arrive at a near optimum solution. Yet, we see many examples from around the world where governments appear to act in ways that do not reflect the general sentiment of the population.

So naturally one is led to wonder how this comes about. What is the difference from the democratic model we espouse to and the systems of governance we have in reality. From personal observation, one of the key differences is between the knowledge within electorates (using Australian terminology). Model democracy views governments making decisions on relatively simple topics which are easily comprehended by the general public. Of course, in reality, many policies delve into complex subjects which need expert knowledge to make sense of. To make matters worse, these subjects can be controversial and can have large impacts on particular sectors in the community. If those sectors are well funded, in most current democracies, undue pressure can be applied to a government via lobbying, media and other indirect methods of persuasion.  

This needs a lot more but my 20 minutes is up for now…