Around 2,500 years ago during the times of Socrates and Plato, the democracies was based on cities. The governance of the city was by directly elected representatives. Important issues was put out for direct vote and that is how Socrates was sentenced to death and the reason why Plato turned against democracy. Socrates was described as a traitor for his ideas and a threat to the political existence of the democracy.
The cities each had its democratic leaders and what killed the democracies was the wars between them. The conquerors of a city could not by definition be elected leaders of the conquered and the leaders of the strongest city became the the emperors of the other cities. At the end it was no longer democracy, since the only valid electorate was the original city and its followers. A story that has been repeated many times and also was the story of WWII, where an elected and popular leader set out to restore the situation before WWI. In this case the elected leader was enormously popular in his country and continued to be so until the luck started to turn against him. The predecessor to UN was dissolved because it could not continue to exist without support and respect. Now we have democracies based on countries and different organizations of appointment of governments. The only body that somewhat represent a world democracy is UN. I really hope that we can show respect this time and not repeat history. Democracy will not work, if we do not introduce it on a world wide basis and condemn any kind of occupation. Democracy must be shown at a global level to survive. The way that US and some others behave is by no definition to describe as international democracy. We must nurture and respect UN as a body at any cost, otherwise we will repeat history and democracy becomes a theatric farce. All what is happening around us now, is scaring. Why should we force Iraq to disarm and follow UN declarations, when Israel is worse and is occupying land that not belong to them. It is understandable the Arabs or Muslims feel the consequences of this kind of democracy and do not agree with the Hippocratic repetition of history. Even UN is not a suitable body, as long as some members have the right to veto decisions in an undemocratic way. Bullying and unilateral decisions are a threat to democracy. Hakan At 09:54 PM 11/8/2002 +0100, you wrote: >T Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 21:12:30 -0500 > From: "Steve Spence" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: Re: BP chief fears US will carve up Iraqi oil riches > >the USA is a democratic Republic. Not a true democracy. > >Steve Spence > > >What's the difference? > >The USA and most other democracies are Representative >Democracy. >ie. You vote for your representative once every 4/5 yrs. >Once elected, Government does not consult the electorate on >policy decisions, which is why we're not moving to sustainable >practices nearly fast enough. (the vested interests having profound >influence on govt policy decisions) >I'm working on another model, Direct Democracy. This is based on >internet voting, where any issue can be selected and a referendum >can be held at any time. >If we the people can unite on the internet, then just maybe we can >start to influence government policy. >James > > > > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Biofuels list archives: >http://archive.nnytech.net/ > >Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. >To unsubscribe, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to >http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Biofuels list archives: >http://archive.nnytech.net/ > >Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. >To unsubscribe, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/