What are the challenges to Indian democracy?
The challenges of Indian democracy are four fold, which can be expressed as 4Cs.1: CasteCaste is the greatest challenge of India. Casteism seems to be growing by leaps and bound with every passing year. Most Indians vote on the basis of caste and support those parties who promise reservation to their castes. We are seeing rise of caste-based parties and the caste based reservation is taking an ugly turn in most part of India.2: CreedNothing sells more in Indian politics than religion. Politicians often project themselves to be most devout follower of their religion and the member of other religions as evil, antinational. They have been quite successful in creating hatred among the different creeds. By making some religions villains, they become the hero of the people of their own religion.3: CorruptionIndia is one of the most corrupt countries of the world. The credit has to be given to our masses who have no qualms in electing the corrupt politicians even if they are in jail. It is a mutual relationships. Politicians bribe voters during the elections and voters bribe the politicians after the election. They fool each other and they blame each other for fooling them.4: CompetencyAdministration is a serious business. You need the knowledge of rules, laws and procedures to head the government. Even the lowest rank government officer is selected by a rigorous process. However, any one can become a minister. You may be failed in your school and still you can become the Education minister and direct the Director and VCs of the top universities and colleges. People elect their leaders not on the basis of their competency, but on other extraneous factors. Unless we have competent people to head the government, democracy can’t succeed.
What are some of the major problems in democracy?
“Democracy is the worst form of Governance except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time” ~ Winston ChurchillOf all the things a ‘true’ democracy promises, it certainly delivers on fairness of its nomenclature, as the ‘rule of the people’ ensures that we shall be governed no better than we deserve. The problems of Democracy are many and all are rooted in the Demos.Let us exemplify few:1) Delayed decision making Different citizens may have different, and often conflicting, expectations on governance. Politics is the art of negotiating these expectations to reach a common agreeable stance. Democratic politics rely heavily on thorough consultative process which leads to elongated delays, yet it ensures greater acceptability of the decision. The delays can be avoided if the demos develop mutual respect and learn the give and takes of negotiation rather than taking rigid stance. 2) Populism Populist politics or fractional politics are practised only because they work. They are means to an end and not the end. It is the job of a democratic politician to garner maximum support. The product is produced for there is a ready market. The president elect Trump or Brexit, irrespective of their debatable fallacy, confirms that liberal politics is undergoing a bearish time in the mass market.3) Majoritarianism The accusation of equating democracy to ‘majority dictatorship’ is unfounded. A true democracy means the government functioning under rule of law and equal before law and equal protection of law are the basic tenets of it. Where in world a democracy was attempted without ensuring political equality to all and special provisions for minorities it failed. A Democracy without rule of law is a deception.Even with all the limitations, democracy is essential and indispensable for sustainable governance, because as man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, similarly man’s inclination to injustice makes Democracy necessary.The rule of the people can be perfected by on boarding all in decision making process and ensuring everyone’s interest is taken care of in a balanced fashion.In conclusion, all the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
Why are Democrats focusing on a divisive fringe agenda instead of listening to the disenfranchised voters across the US?
The Trump voters (mostly white people in red states) are not the only ones hit by changing times and thrown under the bus by increasingly corrupt politicians whose only real constituents are the 1%, banks, and corporations. Democrats, liberals, non-whites do not live in a bubble untouched by economic concerns. They too struggle with trying to make ends meet in a society where their wages stagnate and their cost of living goes up.But Trump voters are the only ones who consistently vote in the people who make the situation much, much worse. Donald drained the swamp right into the White House and his cabinet members are predatory millionaires and billionaires who are going to make even more money using the industries they were hired to regulate and protect. Same for the Republicans the Trump voters put into office: their new budget protects the wealthy who don’t need protection, and doesn’t give working Americans who are already at their limit the help they need.For instance, there’s an opioid epidemic in Trump’s white America. People are falling down and dying in the streets. And they can’t find help because — guess why? The Republicans have decided that protecting the rich is much more important than helping the struggling working Americans. Funding for clinics is disappearing and they are shutting down.Nothing but NOTHING will improve for ANYONE under Trump except for those who prey on working Americans. We now have two branches of the government at each other’s throats and virtually impotent as a result. A government shutdown looms.So my questions are: Why do Republican voters keep making the problem worse? Why did so many vote for a man who was clearly so impaired and incapable? Why don’t they check voting records to see how many times Republican politicians walked on them to get to their wealthy constituents? If they hate any Democrat or liberal so much that they’d rather be hurt by a Republican than helped by a Democrat, why don’t they take back their party and insist that it serve them and all working Americans?Edit: And now a scam designed to take yet more money from working Americans and give breaks to those who don’t need it has been passed by the Republicans. Honestly, people — what do they have to do to you before you say enough?Opinion | The Biggest Tax Scam in History
Is today's political environment the outcome of democracy (or is it more a result of capitalism)?
A “scientific” (or otherwise common sense) approach would be consider what is “problem” and compare non-democratic systems and non-capitalism systems to see if problem is less or worse in those systems.First, easier one - capitalism? Is capitalism the cause of our problems? It may very well be, but looks like all other system are having worse or bigger problems. Most socialism country went bankrupt Venezuela the latest example, and the very few surviving ones are in extreme poverty, Noth Korea, any volunteers to go there? So if Capitalism is the cause of our problems, at least it is causing less problem than its rivals.Second, the more difficult one Democracy. To see if Democracy is the cause of our problems, it would need a little bit more work, since most socialism countries were not Democratic, it is hard to isolate a Socialism issue from non-Democratic issue. Although the recent Venezuela example somewhat clarified the situation a little bit. Do we have capitalism that are not democratic? A lot, are they successful? hmmm. mixed. Most non-Democratic capitalism societies are “resource” based economy, and because of its resource nature, it is much easier to “buy” their way out of trouble, so we don’t know if it is that their system is better, or because their resource bought their way out of trouble. It will be interesting to see the development of OPEC nations now the crude oil price seems will stay low for extended period of time.One thing is relatively known is Democracy worked better than there are external competitions I.e. WWII or even the Cold War. When there is an external threat, people (different section of voters) tent to focus on the external adversity and are more likely to make choices that enhance their own external competition position. The opposite was also known by most philosophers — during “peaceful” time, democracy tent to focus more on internal issues, the divid the population — because the lack of a common target, means people will choose different things that each of them prioritize. And since these priorities are not imposed from a single external source, it means the division amount voters are likely to intensify.Whether or not the intensity will translate to worse internal conflict is hard to tell — usually in a Democracy, such conflict is unlikely, that being said, American Civil war was started while it was a Democracy.