Saturday 15 December 2012

Democracy makes socialism more difficult

Part of the problem with first past the post is that the parties do not reflect a 'left' and 'right' of conventional politics. If it is true that the parties are each to the left and right respectively of the population then there could be an argument that this system is suitable. But that is not the case the two parties converge to the point where they have more in common with each other than they do with the country. The electorate are trapped into choosing a party they (mildly) prefer rather than one which represents them. (They are motivated to block the worse of the two options.) Without proportional representation there is no true representation. With pr it is possible for voters to block many different political ideologies in favour of the one they choose... not just one out of two. With pr there is certainty that we will be represented and that government has afforded us the most freedom possible. With fptp there is no such certainty and we rely on the two parties to be merciful and to not tax and regulate the economy to too great an extent. With pr freedom is certain whereas with fptp it is merely possible. If there is a difference in outcome between the two systems it is that with pr there is more freedom from the government because that is what democracy achieves. Democracy is the mechanism by which the state is held accountable. To not want democracy is to not want the state to be held to account. Democracy is bad for the state but only to the extent that it is bad for the socialist and communist policies. It is not bad for the defensive property-protecting elements of the state which would only receive more of a mandate from the introduction of pr. Pr isn't socialist because democracy is bad (not good) for socialism. There is no form of socialism perpetrated by the state which is a result of democracy only... the state itself wants to act in a socialist way and it is from democracy which it receives its mandate. Without the state wanting to implement socialism democracy (on its own) has no power to do so. Socialism is caused by the state not democracy... which is why we need more of it. Socialism is not the result of democracy alone so we can say that democracy is either neutral or liberating. Democracy enables the people to provide a veto to the actions of the government and if there is more democracy this results in that veto extending further making it more difficult for the state to implement its agenda. Democracy makes socialism difficult which is why pr is preferable to fptp because it makes socialism more difficult.

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