Monday 4 February 2013

Democracy is inevitable

The concept of a crime is meaningless outside the context of a group. (Individuals can't do a crime to each other because there is no definition of what is a crime for people on their own.) Only in the context of the state (the group) are there crimes. In an anarchist system it would be impossible to defend property under the law. There can be no (objective) law in an anarchist system. There can be no crimes if there is not a recognised group... the reason for this is that it is only the group which defines property rights. It is the weight of opinion which determines property rights and the nature of crime. If we recognise no group then individuals have no way to define what is and isn't criminal and we have a lawless anarchy. It is the group and by extension the state (the group is a state) which protects property rights and defines right from wrong. Without a state we cannot know what is and isn't a crime. Crimes are defined only by the state and it is an oxymoron to think of crimes in an anarchist system. (Anarchy is lawlessness.) If there is no state there is no law. The state is the law. In order to achieve civilisation we need to enshrine a state. There can be no civilisation without a state because this is the source of property rights. So then any society of people have a (natural) right to form a state. The formation of a state is a natural right. Any threat to the state (such as a violation of a valid property claim) is a crime because it is the state alone which defines what is and isn't a crime. What is bad for the state is bad. The state defines what is (not) criminal. We have a right to form a state because we have a right to civilisation. Since to be legitimate states must be democratic we can say that any threat to democracy itself is a crime. This means any form of totalitarianism such as one-party rule is a crime. Also we can think of the fptp voting system as a form of criminal action because it threatens the democratic rights of the citizens. Just as we have a right to form a state we also have democratic rights. We have a right to make sure the state is accountable only to the electorate. Fptp is a crime which violates the democratic rights of voters. The only voting system which protects the rights of voters is pr which makes sure there is no need for tactical voting. If there is a need to vote tactically this is a sign that the democratic rights of the voters have been violated. For the state not to provide proportional elections is a violation of the rights of the voters. This by extension is a violation of the rights of the people to form a (legitimate) state.

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