Monday, March 19, 2007

The Shortcomings Of Democracy

Today we're constantly told that democracy is the best form of government. Our founding fathers would not necessarily have agreed with this. Benjamin Franklin reportedly once said, "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch." The fact is that America was not designed to be a democracy but a Democratic Republic. In a democracy the majority rules. In a democratic republic the leaders may change but the underlying principles will always stay the same.

There is an interesting article I ran across this morning about democracies and it's drawbacks. The proposed solutions I would generally disagree with as they generally favor only those with money and neglect everyone else. However, it makes some very good points and opens up some interesting lines of thought and discussion. Another interesting article that's not specifically about democracy but covers the state of governments in Europe and the influx of Mohammedans that is changing their political landscape can be found at the Brussels Journal.