Has Anyone Read The Book Called On Liberty by John Stewart Mill? - Page 2

PokerProdigy · #11 05-14-2005, 08:53 PM

But who elects those "powerful politicians" in a democracy. The majority right?

Autocratic · #12 05-14-2005, 09:10 PM

Because they are the best candidates, or because they are the best of the two or three offered? Their hands are forced.

PokerProdigy · #13 05-15-2005, 02:42 AM

Because they are the best of the 2 or 3 offered. But they are usually still in office representing those who voted for them. Right?

Autocratic · #14 05-15-2005, 01:43 PM

What I'm saying is that because the choices are so limited (not to mention the restrictions of parties, lobbyist power, etc.) the people aren't fully represented.

PokerProdigy · #15 05-15-2005, 02:27 PM

[ QUOTE ]
What I'm saying is that because the choices are so limited (not to mention the restrictions of parties, lobbyist power, etc.) the people aren't fully represented.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I can definitely agree with that [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

purnell · #16 05-15-2005, 02:30 PM

...about a million years ago. Nice topic. I know it's around here somewhere...

sexypanda · #17 05-15-2005, 03:10 PM

[ QUOTE ]
But who elects those "powerful politicians" in a democracy. The majority right?

[/ QUOTE ]

The American founding fathers took Mill's "tyranny of the majority" into consideration when constructing our democracy. That's why we have the electorate system, and why the Congress is split into the Senate and the House (the Senate having 2 members from each state, and the House having a varying amount of members from each state based on their populations).

PokerProdigy · #18 05-15-2005, 03:18 PM

I heard that the electoral system was set up so that we'd have even MORE tyranny. I heard that originally it was set up so that some peoples votes would be worth more than others, and that way you could still have some of those old, powerful, rich, white guys making the rules.

purnell · #19 05-15-2005, 03:27 PM

There was the thing where slaves were counted as a fraction of a person, for deciding how many reps a state had. This was a compromise, with the non-slave states saying that counting the slaves gave too much power to the slave states, and the slave states arguing, I guess, that the slaves were people and should be fully represented. Sick [censored], that.

Autocratic · #20 05-15-2005, 06:19 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I heard that the electoral system was set up so that we'd have even MORE tyranny. I heard that originally it was set up so that some peoples votes would be worth more than others, and that way you could still have some of those old, powerful, rich, white guys making the rules.

[/ QUOTE ]

The electoral college was set up because they wanted a sampling of who the elite - represented in the college - wanted for president. They believed the public was generally unsuited to being given full electoral power.