idea
Democracy is a system where the people composing a group are governing it.
Democracy is frequently associated with its representative form, and by extension voting.
There are five aspects to democracy[3]:
- Electoral: who can vote and what power is conferred by voting
- Liberal: what rights are conferred to protect citizens, that the democracy itself cannot undo
- Egalitarian: how well the system provides the same influence on decisions to everyone
- Participatory: how much the citizens can participate in the decision making, or how removed they are
- Deliberative[2]: how much citizens communicate, reflect, are informed and involved in the process.
examples
In the US, there is no correlation between votes and policy, while a strong one between corporate financial contributions and policy[1].
links
Pirates were an example of a balanced system where leader was sufficiently at risk of eviction to lay democracy.
Democracy is a system supposed to reduce to spread Control in organizations
[2]: Sortition is a mechanism that allows participation and deliberation.
references
second thought / Should the US be considered a democracy
[1]: Pfeffer & Waitkus / The Wealth Inequality of Nations {todo: download pdf}