my answer to this paradox is that the actual core of democracy is not rule of the people but the prevention of rule by a tyrant - ThreadSky

aelkus.bsky.social • 25 days ago

my answer to this paradox is that the actual core of democracy is not rule of the people but the prevention of rule by a tyrant

Reposted from Dave Karpf

This is one of the most basic insights from 20th century polisci.

The paradox of a democracy that presumes mass knowledge and participation, and manages to (at least barely) function in their absence, is one of our foundational puzzles.

This is intro-level shit. And Balaji is failing the test.

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convolver.bsky.social•25 days ago

The most important long-term political shift may not be the wholesale moral corruption of the right so much as the shift of focus on the left — occasioned by that corruption — to something between Shklar’s “liberalism of fear” and an outright civic republicanism.

369enthusiast.bsky.social•24 days ago

there's a kind of grossman-stiglitz paradox in effect where, like, yeah, The People are mostly asleep at the wheel most of the time, but this is a product of complacency and not an iron law of the universe

369enthusiast.bsky.social•24 days ago

like i'm sure 85% of voters do not know or care what DOGE is up to. but if they actually start cutting off Social Security checks that'll change real fast

antireactionary.bsky.social•25 days ago

Democracy does not prevent tyranny. Democracy in polarised societies gives us populist autocrats, who can easily transition to tyrants.
#Democracy

grizwald.bsky.social•25 days ago

I would agree with this. The way I've phrased it in the past that's reasonably similar is that the core feature of democracy is pre-scheduled revolutions that the security forces agree in advance not to suppress.

dibass.bsky.social•25 days ago

Democracy is where the people own power and have a system to delegate it with the reasonable expectation of it have to take to the streets with guns to get it back

nico-encounter.bsky.social•25 days ago

This the sort of liberal ideology that got us into this mess. Yes! We must treat people as if they are leaders and not servants! As if they can make decisions for themselves!

wetsloth.bsky.social•25 days ago

No, we must not. We must develop this, not assume it is the natural state of things.

nico-encounter.bsky.social•25 days ago

What I'm saying is that precisely liberal ideology, and liberal democratic capitalism has prevented its development

wetsloth.bsky.social•25 days ago

That's not liberalism's fault tho. Not everything in our society is a manifestation of liberalism. Nor have Left governments treated their citizens like leaders, so I'm not really sure what your arguing for

aelkus.bsky.social•25 days ago

its buried here in the book but friedman makes arg that we have inflated definition and responsibilities of democracy because we got used to the core function being taken care of https://global.oup.com/academic/product/power-without-knowledge-9780190877170

aelkus.bsky.social•25 days ago

anti-tyranism is a basic function because Hobbes' state of nature has security threats from below....and above. If a tyrant's men walk into your house, beat you to the ground, and take your wife and valuables its not really functionally different from a bunch of crooks doing it

aelkus.bsky.social•25 days ago

either way, there sure as hell aren't any police stopping them!

aelkus.bsky.social•25 days ago

Frequently you see Hobbesian threats from above and below *at the same time*. E.g, there are lots of places around the world where you cannot expect the police to protect you from powerful gangs but you can expect the police to behave like gangs to you

aelkus.bsky.social•25 days ago

democracy as anti-tyrannism has remained a stable characteristic of democratic systems over centuries despite significant variations in how much public participation is allowed

aelkus.bsky.social•25 days ago

is it, all things being equal, *better* that the people have control over their destiny? sure. america today is a much better place than it was when only white men who owned property could vote

zas.bsky.social•25 days ago

We need to hasten the rise of The Woke Hobbesian

aelkus.bsky.social•25 days ago

woke hobbes is saying that inner cities are state of nature because minorities cannot trust the police to protect them or stop predating them

zas.bsky.social•25 days ago

.-. ok well I had a different reading

zas.bsky.social•25 days ago

(Woke Hobbesian is the hobbesian who emphasizes the post I initially replied to rather than the inverse (traditional) perspective on hobbes)

catblanketflower.yuwakisa.com•25 days ago

This is good

In this context, the Bill of Rights was a reminder to the Constitutional Convention that the Constitution wasn't allowed to be a tyrant either

catblanketflower.yuwakisa.com•25 days ago

Someone (Campbell?) has a quote that I can't find that civilization formed to protect us from psychopaths

akaashkolluri.bsky.social•25 days ago

"Democracy" as a system has gotten overloaded with so many responsibilities and values that this basic reality has been obscured

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