Quote Originally Posted by Ragoczy View Post
Pure Democracy is defined as Majority Rules -- the masses vote directly on issues. The United States is not a Democracy, it's a Republic -- to get very detailed, it's a Constitutionally-limited, Representative Republic that has a democratic process. The founders of the US recognized this and many of their writing speak about the dangers of pure Democracy.

Pure Democracy is bad because the majority decide things without the rule of law over their decisions -- in other words, it's the tyranny of the majority. It's great ... as long as you're in the majority, of course. For those with minority views there are no protections.

So, yes, I know of a better form of government -- pretty much any. As I stated, in a dictatorship the people can overthrow the one in power -- but it's tough to overthrow the majority.

Pure Democracy is when seven wolves and sheep decide what's for lunch ... everyone gets a vote ... even the lunch.
Ok, i see. Thanks. But i like to disagree on two different levels. Let me explain: I live in Switzerland, our system is quite close to what you describe here. We get to vote directly on issues. From whether or not abortion should be legalized to whether or not there should be a new sewage treatment plant.
But there are many "safety catches", including the constitution, international laws (from the human rights bill to trade bills signed by Switzerland) but also a supreme court who can overthrow a decision voted on by a majority. That is quite possibly happening in the near future: We have to vote for (or against, in my case) a law banning minarets on mosques. Even it that law is voted for by a majority, it may very likely be overthrown by the supreme court because it is agains the constitutional right of freedom of religion. Why we have to vote if it's already pretty clear that a possible pro-vote wont stand in the end is an altogether different question, of course.
So far Switzerland did quite well, and to my knowledge no "extreme" issue was ever voted for. There were some ugly votes on topics regarding foreigners living here, but i am the first to admit that they are only ugly from my point of view.

As for your statement that a pure democracy is even better than a dictatorship: Ok, it might be easier to whack one guy (has there ever been a female dictator???) than a majority. However, a majority ruling over a minority is imho still better than one guy ruling over all the rest. Simply a matter of numbers. Besides, even if i dont really believe in common sense in large masses, there seems to exist such a thing since in most places where people have a vote (i. e. democracies) they do vote in a more or less responsible way. Of course there are exceptions to this, but usually those exceptions occured in exceptional times.
To make it short: While dictatorships exists and usually are pretty nasty for at least a great minority living under them, i have never heard of a pure democracy. Because if you give people the right to vote they tend to prove to be not as stupid as one would expect at the first moment.