Mike Ossipoff:
re: "...including ones whose proposals and procedures are
democratic." (posted in response to: "My comment was not
referring to democracies, it was referring to parties")
Parties are not democratic, either in relation to the entire electorate
or in relation to their own membership. In terms of the entire
electorate, they are but a subset of the people, organized to impose
their will on the majority. In terms of their membership, they are
oligarchic. They exhibit The Iron Rule of Oligarchy as described by
Robert Michels. You can find his fascinating study of the issue,
Political Parties, at:
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/michels/polipart.pdf
This brief excerpt may excite your interest:
"It is indisputable that the oligarchical and bureaucratic
tendency of party organization is a matter of technical and
practical necessity. It is the inevitable product of the very
principle of organization ... Its only result is, in fact, to
strengthen the rule of the leaders, for it serves to conceal
from the mass a danger which really threatens democracy."
Political Parties, pp 27-28
re: "It isn't the job of the electoral method to choose who will
run, or to seek out candidates. We ourselves, the public,
the voters, should be the ones to decide who our best
advocates are."
You are correct when you say, "We ourselves, the public, the voters,
should be the ones to decide who our best advocates are." You are wrong
when you say it is not the job of the electoral method to ensure that
happens. The electoral method must ensure that each and every one of us
is able to participate in the electoral process, including the selection
of candidates, to the full extent of our desire and ability. When the
electoral method lets the parties pick the candidates the people will be
allowed to choose from, it is not only undemocratic, it's dangerous.
re: "...but which you feel are somehow like Stalin and Hitler."
and
"you need to understand and admit that what you really are
opposed to is is government itself."
and
"Yeah, that's what the Democrats say too :-) And the
Republicans too."
and
the various and sundry similar slurs strewn throughout
your post.
These slurs are tiresome, and the deliberate misconstructions of my
comments are tedious. Until you demonstrate that you have the
intellectual ability necessary to contribute and the common courtesy
necessary to participate in 'Conceiving a Democratic Electoral Process',
I shan't waste my time responding to your posts.
Fred
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