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[David Stodolsky]

> On 8 Jan 2020, at 04:37, Rand Strauss <Rand at PeopleCount.org> wrote:
> 
> We don’t have a democracy.  Humanity has never had a true representative democracy of any large number of people.


It is wise to apply technically correct terms, when dealing with disputed concepts. Until the formation of the USA, “democracy” meant “Athens” - a form of governance in which people vote directly on the issues. My “eDemocracy review” provides a summary:

https://groups.io/g/yellowvests/wiki/eDemocracy-and-Athenian-democracy <https://groups.io/g/yellowvests/wiki/eDemocracy-and-Athenian-democracy>

The current usage of “democracy” can be considered one of the greatest propaganda victories in history. When Benjamin Franklin was asked the result of the constitutional convention he said, “A republic, if you can keep it.” This is a technically correct characterization. A governance system in which people select others to decide issues is a republic. 

So, a "representative democracy” is a republican form of government. The major conceptual challenge is defining operationally what is meant by “representative.” Other terms, such as "accountability,” face the same problem, with no theoretically rigorous answer in sight. The only solution to this quandary is to empirically determine the degree to which governmental decisions reflect the desires of the population. A recent study suggest that citizens have no such influence in the USA:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf


dss



David Stodolsky, PhD                   Institute for Social Informatics
Tornskadestien 2, st. th., DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
dss at socialinformatics.org          Tel./Signal: +45 3095 4070

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