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02202: Re: [WDDM] Democracy rating

From: Michael Stansfield <pure_democracy(at)yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 16:39:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [WDDM] Democracy rating

Not true.  Proposition on the ballot that passes a majority vote in 3/4s of the states becomes law of the land according to article V of the Constitution.


From: Bruce Eggum <bruce.eggum(at)gmail.com>
To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2009 4:04:29 PM
Subject: Re: [WDDM] Democracy rating

A democratic "devise" does not make a democracy. The USA itself does not provide for "Initiative" and Binding Referendum.
The problem is the "people" are not governing. The many loose descriptions of "democracy" don't cut it any more.
Bruce Eggum
Gresham Wisconsin, USA



On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 5:52 PM, <Joshua N Pritikin> wrote:
On Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 05:19:35PM -0500, Bruce Eggum wrote:
> USA like some other country's on the list is not a democracy. It is a
> republic run by 565 representative politicians.
> best government money can buy

Some people have raised objection to a national ballot initiative on the
grounds that America is a republic, not a democracy. However, this
argument is misleading because there is not much consensus about the
meaning of the word 'republic' aside from the meaning of "not a
monarchy." In the early 1900s, state-level initiatives were challenged
on grounds of the guarantee clause, but the courts refused to decide the
question because they ruled it was of a political nature. Permitting
initiative implicitly legitimized it; By recognizing the legitimacy of
state governments, the federal government has implicitly sanctioned
popular initiative, a democratic device.



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