May 30, 2009

Is Democracy the Killer of Liberty?

By Amil Imani
I repeat: Is democracy the killer of liberty? The dictionary defines democracy as the rule of the people. Even at its best, "democracy is the worst form of government except for all the rest," according to Winston Churchill. Is democracy a very bad form of government? Does it hold the threat of destroying humanity's most precious right - liberty? Here are some things to think about.In the so-called democratic societies, a semblance of democracy hobbles along with fits and starts, always on the verge of complete subversion and collapse. For instance, the Western democracies are representative democracies where the ordinary citizens do not rule. A representative democracy is, in effect, a plutocracy where moneyed people and powerful interest groups rule.A society's rulers form a pyramid. At the base of the pyramid, we have the closest thing to democracy. The individual citizen has some sway on the locally elected officials such as the sheriff, the mayor, the city councilman,...(Read Full Article)