The problem with democracy is voters
11-26-2023
, 04:19 PM
11-26-2023
, 04:21 PM
11-26-2023
, 08:45 PM
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...lection-europe
I didn't make it much further. Rest is what I consider NEO-liberal spew.
Snips from Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph Schumpeter:
Marx is talking about ends, not means to. Those ends are not incompatible with Classical Liberalism that's grounded in the Greek notion of Thymos, which broadly means freedom, equality, recognition and dignity. In other words, that's what people really desire as opposed to or maybe in addition to the material prospertity capitalism provides. Seems like an educational issue to me. Maybe we need another Enlightenment.
Quote:
One of the more important building blocks for our work was [Austrian-born economist and political scientist who wrote mostly in the early 20th century] Joseph Schumpeter’s work on democracy....
Snips from Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph Schumpeter:
Quote:
PART III Can Socialism Work?
CAN socialism work? Of course it can. No doubt is possible about that once we assume, first, that the requisite stage of industrial development has been reached and, second, that transitional problems can be successfully resolved. One may, of course, feel very uneasy about these assumptions themselves or about the questions whether the socialist form of society can be expected to be democratic and, democratic or not, how well it is likely to function. All that will be discussed later on. But if we accept these assumptions and discard these doubts the answer to the remaining question is clearly Yes. Before I attempt to prove it, I should like to clear some obstacles from our way. We have so far been rather careless about certain definitions and we must make up for it now. We shall simply envisage two types of society and mention others only incidentally. These types we will call Commercial and Socialist.
PART IV Socialism and Democracy
I. THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
Socialism in being might be the very ideal of democracy. But socialists are not always so particular about the way in which it is to be brought into being. The words Revolution and Dictatorship stare us in the face from sacred texts, and many modern socialists have still more explicitly testified to the fact that they have no objection to forcing the gates of the socialist paradise by violence and terror which are to lend their aid to more democratic means of conversion. Marx’s own position concerning this matter is no doubt capable of an interpretation that will clear him in the eyes of democrats. In Part I it was shown how his views on revolution and evolution may be reconciled. Revolution need not mean an attempt by a minority to impose its will upon a recalcitrant people; it may mean no more than the removal of obstructions opposed to the will of the people by outworn institutions controlled by groups interested in their preservation. The dictatorship of the proletariat will bear a similar interpretation. In support, I may again point to the wording of the relevant passages in the Communist Manifesto where Marx talks about wresting things from the bourgeoisie “by degrees” and about the disappearance of class distinctions “in the course of development”—phrases which, the emphasis on “force” notwithstanding, seem to point toward a procedure that might come within the meaning of democracy as ordinarily understood.
CAN socialism work? Of course it can. No doubt is possible about that once we assume, first, that the requisite stage of industrial development has been reached and, second, that transitional problems can be successfully resolved. One may, of course, feel very uneasy about these assumptions themselves or about the questions whether the socialist form of society can be expected to be democratic and, democratic or not, how well it is likely to function. All that will be discussed later on. But if we accept these assumptions and discard these doubts the answer to the remaining question is clearly Yes. Before I attempt to prove it, I should like to clear some obstacles from our way. We have so far been rather careless about certain definitions and we must make up for it now. We shall simply envisage two types of society and mention others only incidentally. These types we will call Commercial and Socialist.
PART IV Socialism and Democracy
I. THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
Socialism in being might be the very ideal of democracy. But socialists are not always so particular about the way in which it is to be brought into being. The words Revolution and Dictatorship stare us in the face from sacred texts, and many modern socialists have still more explicitly testified to the fact that they have no objection to forcing the gates of the socialist paradise by violence and terror which are to lend their aid to more democratic means of conversion. Marx’s own position concerning this matter is no doubt capable of an interpretation that will clear him in the eyes of democrats. In Part I it was shown how his views on revolution and evolution may be reconciled. Revolution need not mean an attempt by a minority to impose its will upon a recalcitrant people; it may mean no more than the removal of obstructions opposed to the will of the people by outworn institutions controlled by groups interested in their preservation. The dictatorship of the proletariat will bear a similar interpretation. In support, I may again point to the wording of the relevant passages in the Communist Manifesto where Marx talks about wresting things from the bourgeoisie “by degrees” and about the disappearance of class distinctions “in the course of development”—phrases which, the emphasis on “force” notwithstanding, seem to point toward a procedure that might come within the meaning of democracy as ordinarily understood.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl Marx's "Critique of the Gotha Program.
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
11-26-2023
, 11:52 PM
11-27-2023
, 01:38 AM
11-27-2023
, 01:48 AM
