> >"Dr. Arrow, Dr. Arrow, you're wanted in intensive care........The
voters
> >can't agree...Dr. Arrow"
>
> You'll note that in his book _Social Choice and Individual Values_,
Kenneth
> Arrow pointed to similar problems for all other methods of social
> decision-making. It's not just with voting.
>
> Further, democracy is not just majority voting. It refers to a
system of
> majority rule _and_ minority rights.
>
> Ian, what's your alternative to democracy as the main political
principle?
>
>
> Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
===========
Hey, I'm with Churchill on this one. Preference dynamics and
transitivity paradoxes indicate the need for institutions that
accommodate significant cultural change with regards to issues of
negative and positive liberty. That just ain't happening in the US and
libertarian and anarchistic attitudes towards institutions, and
bureaucracy don't seem to appreciate the complexities of *very* large
societies. Thus we get increasing attacks on our 18th century defined
'sphere of liberty' despite a supposed anti-authoritarian 'pop
culture'. Whether we should see democratic polities through the tropes
of irony, tragedy or both is an open question; right now my money is
on tragedy. We can't even seem to agree on what liberty means anymore,
nor even on whom shall 'have authority' to define it's scale and
scope.
Ian
