RE: [WDDM] Democracy rating

["Jim Powell" <autoinfo(at)acenet.co.za>]

Hi Bruce

Is democracy possible with capitalism? *** Is Switzerland democratic? depends --- Swiss I&BR is more democratic than most representative governments. A note from a Swiss they have trouble gaining enough signatures for an initiative.*** If the voters are not interested then it is a non issue

Can socialism be democratic? *** Seems to be the best form for the benefit of the community ---- The problem with Democracy is lack of participants. Perhaps if people were given more “direct” responsibility they would participate. However the participants may be of a group, corporations or elite. Than the workers would be in the same pickle. Union groups often influence their members, same pickle. Need to develop a “constitution” of how socialism would provide equality. Your suggestion next is very good. *** There is a problem in Switzerland where there is no public funding for I&R. The voters are intelligent enough to spot the interested party funding. Even front companies and bogus NGO’s have been revealed. There is a requirement for source of funding in I&R. There are more voters participating in the I&R than voting for politicians.

Regards

Jim Powell

Bruce Eggum
Gresham Wisconsin, USA
http://usinitiative.com

  vote

On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 2:31 AM, <Jim Powell> wrote:

Hi Bruce,

My response/counter questions follows ***

Is democracy possible with capitalism? *** Is Switzerland democratic?
Can socialism be democratic? *** Seems to be the best form for the benefit of the community
What do we need to do? *** Community organisations to be set up along DD principles. Set up DD organisations in each area and have members join established political parties to change from within the current political system

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/treder20090601/ *** Interesting site

Regards

Jim Powell

On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:09 AM, <Jim Powell> wrote:

Hi Parrhesia,

Thanks for the email.

It is a good description to say that Democracy is a slippery word.

Throughout the world democracy can best be described as a 5 year
dictatorship where the term of office is 5 years.

Switzerland has Direct Democracy at all levels of government. Each of the
Cantons and municipalities have differing levels of Direct Democracy. Bottom
of the list for level of democracy would be a dictatorship

Has anyone got a system to assess level of democracy? Is there an
organisation that carries this out?

Regards

Jim Powell

-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Hammer
Sent: 02 Jun 2009 02:48 AM
To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net

Subject: RE: [WDDM] Democracy rating

What do you mean by "Level of democracy"? What would a 100% democracy be?
Democracy is a slippery word.

Parrhesia

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Powell
Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 4:01 AM
To: wddm@world-wide-democracy.net
Subject: [WDDM] Democracy rating

Hi All,

Is there a method where the level of democracy in a country can be measured
or is there an organisation that does this?

Is there a table where countries are ranked? I would expect that Switzerland
would be close to the top and Mynamar (Burma) would be close to the bottom.

Regards

Jim Powell