Nod. I figured a while back that you need two things for a good democracy.
First, you need people willing to take on some risk for democracy. If not, well, someone will *always* be willing to try *something* to strong arm people. If people won't stand up to at least some level of risk, there's no chance of a working democracy (but maybe a democracy in name only).
Second, you need people who love the good of the country enough to give up something. If they won't give up *anything*, they don't want democracy, they want oligarchy.
There's more, but those two seem most essential. If you're not sure both of those exist in sufficient quantities, I think democracy is doomed.
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Date: 2007-12-28 08:28 pm (UTC)First, you need people willing to take on some risk for democracy. If not, well, someone will *always* be willing to try *something* to strong arm people. If people won't stand up to at least some level of risk, there's no chance of a working democracy (but maybe a democracy in name only).
Second, you need people who love the good of the country enough to give up something. If they won't give up *anything*, they don't want democracy, they want oligarchy.
There's more, but those two seem most essential. If you're not sure both of those exist in sufficient quantities, I think democracy is doomed.