DEFINITIONS OF DEMOCACY

 DEFINITIONS OF DEMOCACY

By Collectivist Action

One way democracy can be defined is as the highest form of self determination. The latter concept could be defined as: 1) real control over one’s body 2) the right and the resources to satisfy one’s vital needs 3) the recognition of human interdependence &  social rights & obligations.

Democracy can also be defined as a system of governing society in which laws, policies, and major political decisions  are ostensibly determined by a numerical majority of the people in any given political jurisdiction.

However, we’ve seen where ‘the people’ can be defined as  either an empowered numerical minority,  legally classified as citizens,   or a   numerical majority socially-engineered by a ruling class. 

In colonial America, e.g., and in the nation state which succeeded it,  the slavocratic ruling class socially -engineered, over time,  a numerical majority of the population classified-as-white, primarily through genocide and white supremacist immigration policies.

The U.S. is  generally recognized as a  ‘representative democracy’. Theoretically, laws are passed and  policies and practices are implemented which, supposedly,  express   the will of the majority of  people. In actuality they represent, more often than not, the will of the biggest benefactors, usually big  corporations,  wealthy families and individuals.  

Major financial donors, not politicians,  often write legislation  in addition to  threatening to cut off (and cutting off!) future campaign donations as retaliation for policies which go against their interests.

But the real antidemocratic elements of the U.S. electoral system are baked into the structure itself. . .

“The hallowed 1787 parchment’s Electoral College system permits someone to ascend to the White House without winning a majority in the national popular presidential vote. Majority support is not required . . .The Electoral College significantly inflates the ‘democratic’ electoral voice of the nation’s most reactionary, white, racists, rural and ‘red’ (Republican) states.”(1)

Paul Street

If we include the malapportioned Senate, the undemocratically appointed Supreme Court, the gerrymandered U.S. House of Representative, etc. and THE BIG MONEY money in politics, the U.S. political system can not be accurately and honestly  described as a democracy, in spite of honest and earnest efforts  to make it one.