Has India ever been free of corruption enough to actually be a democracy? I get that Modi is a fascist and all, but has the "world's largest democracy" ever been anything but a sham for the average Indian?

[–] BurnTheRight@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Conservatism is a global plague of deception, oppression and death. It always has been.

[–] BeatNik@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Isn't democracy collapsing everywhere? The USA's electoral voting system means democracy doesn't exist. A vote in California is worth 27% of a vote in Wyoming in terms of representation. Add on blatant gerrymandering and you've got a rigged system.

The UK has introduced voter ID laws for a problem that never existed in the past. The UK has also had multiple unelected prime ministers due to the way that the parliamentary system works.

Democracy is on the wane everywhere.

[–] Zippy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Vote weight is fairly common as it provides minority groups a bit more control of their areas. I find that reasonable. There is no such thing as perfect democracy unless you voted on every single issue regardless of importance and that is simply not practical. Sure things could be designed a bit better but the majority of democratic countries have systems that are working quite well. The biggest destabilizes now likely comes more from social media that spreads every dissatisfaction because it sells and makes people think the world is coming to an end. It's not. Or at least not because of failing democracies.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Seems like the problem isn't with democracy, but with the western flavor of liberal parliamentary democracy. Democracy is working just fine in China according to people who live there. All the available studies, including ones coming from prominent western institutions such as Harvard, consistently show that China is democratic and that public satisfaction with the government is far higher than in any western country:

edit: amazing to see rediquette seep into Lemmy now with people downvoting anything that doesn't fit with their preconceptions.

It's also evident that a lot of people here don't actually understand what democracy actually is. Democracy is when the government implements the will of the majority. What the links I've provided show is that the government in China consistently works in the interest of the people of China, and this is reflected in consistently high public satisfaction with the government. Furthermore, the links show that public participation in the governance of China is far higher than it is in the western countries. The party has 15 million members, and consists largely of working class people. Meanwhile, western parties are filled with rich career politicians with practically no working class representation.

The sheer amount of political illiteracy in the west is equal parts depressing and hilarious.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's as if western style liberal democracy is an inherently unstable political system.