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Democracy Must Rule

How to get real democracy.

By Peter RosePublished 7 years ago 7 min read
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Democracy must rule if the world is going to cope with the future.

It must be real democracy and not this mismatch of a mix of elites superficially controlled by political parties.

The elitism groups who still control nations are those with vast amounts of invested wealth, those who run the legal systems, those who have a controlling influence over the media and those who finance the political parties.

Much has already been written about the control of the media and to some extent social media, despite the misuse by activists who tell lies and deliberately mislead people, can be a forum for uncontrolled opinion. This may be a saving feature if the lies and deliberate misinformation are curtailed.

The harm done by speculators, who control vast amounts of capital and use this control for their own selfish ends, rather than capital working in harmony with labour for the benefit of everyone, including the investors. Speculators are as damaging to investors as they are the the people who do the work. I do not know enough about the inner working of the financial and stock markets but I would lay a bet that if the markets wished to stop speculators, they could. If the world is to flourish they must.

The legal systems are out of control, when laws were first written down it was with the intention of providing equality within the law, the intention was justice should be available to every citizen. The legal system of specialists in “the law” controlling all aspects of the administration of “the law” has distorted and obstructed the original intentions.

The laws of “tort” that are laws made in courts have the advantage of being based on case law, actual trials, and judicial studies. They also have the disadvantage of the fact that those who make them-- Judges-- never have to pay the cost, never have to personally be accountable, for the failures, the results, the stupidities that come from them. This is now a major issue since judges can frustrate the will of the majority and never have to answer for their errors of judgment or their antidemocratic actions. This should NOT be allowed in a democracy.

Whilst the legal profession, as everyone else, does have a right to question political decisions they should NOT have the right to make their own laws.

Only statute laws should apply, if a government wishes to accept advice from the judges then they, the government, must pass a law through parliament to abide by that particular bit of advice. Until this is law the judge's opinions remain opinions. This is democracy.

The present situation has grown historically with the legal system claiming it provides “checks and balances” against a Government forcing wrong policies through. This may have been the case when the King made laws and a parliament was elected only by a very few land owning men. But it is not the case now that we have universal enfranchisement. When we have a media capable of ensuring every voter should be well informed. I say should be, because the lies, innuendo and fake news that are being disseminated by all sorts of media are working to destroy democracy by corrupting the very information providers that should be enhancing the democratic process

The fundamental basis of democracy is the majority is right. It is not part of the job description of judges to claim they can alter laws because they do not think this particular majority is right.

A Judge is defined as a person who sits in judgment, listens to both sides of an argument and judges which is right. The modern reality is a judge decides which argument is supported by the law, they no longer even pretend to be deciding where justice lies, only what the law says.

They decide what the law means!

This is wrong, the only people who have a right to say what the law means are the democratically elected body which made the law. It is obvious they must collectively know what they meant the law to mean. If there are members of this body who are not capable of doing this they should resign and allow a more capable person to be elected.

We have no chance of getting back to a true democracy- I say getting back but not sure we have ever had one-- while Judges base all decisions on what they and other non-elected judges interpret the law to mean.

If we get to a true democracy maybe we can return the courts to places where JUSTICE is decided, not the law. Where the legal argument is far less important than truth and moral justice.

Given the vast numbers of people who can vote, given the unscrupulous nature of political activists, given the weakness in the bureaucracy that is supposed to be impartial and ensure all is done fairly, given the modern social media's influences and ability to spread lies and deceits, it is more important than ever before that we get real democracy in governance of the nations. It is also true that it will be harder than ever before to achieve this.

We need a commitment from EVERYONE, from voters to presidents, to want to have a true democracy, we need the powers of judges and bureaucrats to circumvent democracy removed and above all we need high quality, both intellectually and morally, candidates to stand for elections.

It is vital that real democracy is obtained in every nation, the planet earth and every single person on it faces uncertainty over the medium and long term future and only democracy can ensure the problems are resolved in a way acceptable to the majority.

The uncertain future over coping with climate change, the uncertain future over coping with over population, the uncertain future over artificial intelligent controlled automation, the uncertain future over extreme religious and political fanatics trying to force all to their wishes by bloodshed.

Even the uncertain future over the real consequences of badly thought through “green” legislation, the uncertain future over having too much financial power in the hands of so few people, all these need real democracy if they are going to be solved. The sham democracy whereby powerful political parties, dominated by a very wealthy few people, or unions controlled by political zealots who can manipulate and dominate the media, will not suffice We must get back to government by real democracy and get back to having Justice at the center of the legal systems.

The threat to real democracy that comes from political parties is not so much the basic idea of like minded people joining together to form a group intended to persuade the majority to supports its views; that is acceptable. The threat comes from the influence that those who finance modern political parties have.

One answer is that all parties should be financed by the state but this is open to problems, how to police it and how to prevent the bureaucracy from ending up in control. In Britain we have a system where all political donations have to be publicly listed, this may have some effect but it does not address the main issue of the money dictating overall policy. Party conferences used to be forums where the activists and voters could try and influence future party policy but they are now stage managed shams, media feasts. Propaganda exercises with no real influence at all. Reducing the power of the parties to control “their” members and getting back to elected representatives being representatives of the people who elected than NOT of the party would be a start

Real democracy has never been achieved by communism, even when calling itself socialism. As with so much of human activity, the intention may be good, the results never are. A democratically controlled capitalism with large doses of social responsibility may be the answer but it will need to be led by some very good; both morally and intellectually; people. They will have to be leaders with conviction and sense of righteousness if they are to lead humanity through the next 500 years. If the world is going to be a good place to live in the medium to long term WE-- those of us thinking and acting now, must keep trying to find real democracy and ensuring it takes control.

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About the Creator

Peter Rose

Collections of "my" vocal essays with additions, are available as printed books ASIN 197680615 and 1980878536 also some fictional works and some e books available at Amazon;-

amazon.com/author/healthandfunpeterrose

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