Not the US government, that's for sure:

[url=http://www.fff.org/comment/com0204i.asp]Devotion to Democracy?[/url]

I will elaborate. The U.S. IS NOT a Democracy!
It is a Constitutional Republic. Not to long a go Democracy was regarded as a terrible and dangerous form of government. Democracy means "The Mob rules" There is no protection for the unpopular view. Whatever the mob (majority) thinks is the law.

Democracy= every person voting on everything=chaos.

Representative republic=elected representatives making crucial decisions for those who elect them=Structured government.

I snicker every time that I hear someone calling the US government a democracy.

That's what I learned in school.  It is correct, but I have found something much more understandable:

"A democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner."

Of course, sometimes you have the brainless sheep that votes for himself as well....

(not sure where the quote was originally from...I have seen it several times)

-Ed

the whole body of the american people freely elect the representatives in congress, who hold the purse strings to the military &c.  how can that not be democratic?  i fail to see why our interests abroad, which exist only to secure the interests of our country,(our people) are relevant at all to the question of democracy. our government is interested in the continuence of our way of life, which is based upon democracy, but includes several ways in which the will of the people is represented in government, because it is their job to uphold our constitution, not the interests of others abroad. i felt that article to be misleading and frankly, poorly researched and argued.

I like your analogy better, Squib. May I use it?

[rolleyes]
Apparently nobody read the article.

I am well aware of our status as a Republic, not a Democracy.

EDIT:

Quote from the article:


Even if our government professed a devotion to republicanism, they wouldn't in action

Lets see, the American form of republic government:

Somebody has to raise tens of millions of dollars to get elected to Congress.

When you get to Congress your main job is to take as much of the collective tax money as possible and get it transferred to your district.  To hell with what is good for the country.

Don't piss off anybody with money to give you.

Be sure to sell access to your office to the ones that have money.  Hire a couple of flunkies to take care of the needs of your constituents.

Make sure that you are taken care of when you get out of office.

Always do what your party bosses tell you to do.  If you don't then they won't help you get re-elected.

Yep, we sure have a great form of government.  The only problem is I don't think there is anything out there that is any better.  Most of them are a whole lot worse.