Democracy . Is it under grave threat.

[horribleblob]

Sorry, but this post is total tosh. Religious belief is falling away in every single one of the West's liberal democracies INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES where every year more people declare they profess no religion. And in fact this is chipping away at the Republican support base there.

 

Christianity is on the back foot in Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas and in fact this is a matter of grave concern to. Church people. Only in Africa and parts of East Asia like Korea, which seems to be in the process of becoming a Christian majority country, is it doing OK.

 

Related to what you've said, blake: a snippet in the i earlier this week led me to this piece of research from Spring 2015 (2014 for the US data), on the importance of religion in people's lives globally.

[unbeliever]

So, if we had democracy (which I thought we had, what with all the elections and that) which country would you like us to emulate? You could give us your top 5 if you like.

 

---------- Post added 10-01-2016 at 16:57 ----------

 

 

Thank you Dave. I've had a quick look and I promise to look a bit further.

 

Surprisingly though it comes in at number 33 in the corruption scale.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

 

Bhutan became something resembling proper democracy in 2008. Before that it was an autocracy.

Political parties were banned until 2007.

 

Their pluralism leaves something to be desired as the ethnic minority Hindus in the state have rather a hard time.

They enforce laws against Proselytism to defend the dominant Buddhist belief system. So they're not secular.

 

I wouldn't want to live there.

[onewheeldave]

They enforce laws against Proselytism to defend the dominant Buddhist belief system. So they're not secular.

 

I wouldn't want to live there.

 

It's the buddhist element I like- it seems to me that their 'Gross National Happiness' concept came from the buddhist aspect of the culture.

 

They seem to be one of the few remaining countries were buddhist concepts are used, not just as some form of state religion, like Thailand, but, a big part of everyday life and even politics.

 

Things like an emphasis on seeing the true causes and effects behind things, then having the honesty and integrity to label the problems as problems, regardless of whether there's more money to be made from not identifying them as problems.

 

Gross National Happiness is a thing that can counter the consequences of focusing purely on the financial aspects of a situation.

 

It's basically buddhism, but the core of buddhism, before it got all the additions that lead to it being a religion/state religion.

 

And, core buddhism, is secular. The Buddha considered musings on the existence/non-existence of God/s to be irrelevant to what he was teaching.

[unbeliever]

It's the buddhist element I like- it seems to me that their 'Gross National Happiness' concept came from the buddhist aspect of the culture.

 

They seem to be one of the few remaining countries were buddhist concepts are used, not just as some form of state religion, like Thailand, but, a big part of everyday life and even politics.

 

Things like an emphasis on seeing the true causes and effects behind things, then having the honesty and integrity to label the problems as problems, regardless of whether there's more money to be made from not identifying them as problems.

 

Gross National Happiness is a thing that can counter the consequences of focusing purely on the financial aspects of a situation.

 

It's basically buddhism, but the core of buddhism, before it got all the additions that lead to it being a religion/state religion.

 

And, core buddhism, is secular. The Buddha considered musings on the existence/non-existence of God/s to be irrelevant to what he was teaching.

 

None of that matters if you live in Bhutan and want to belong to a faith other than Buddhism.

[onewheeldave]

None of that matters if you live in Bhutan and want to belong to a faith other than Buddhism.

In the interests of balance, I'll remind everyone that there's not, and never has been, a country, where there's zero harassment of minorities on the grounds of race/belief/colour.

 

It's human nature, and, where ever humans gather in large numbers, there will be harassment of minorities.

 

What I like about Bhutan, is, that despite it possessing many of the inherent defects that plague all countries, it has come up with an interesting and innovative concept (derived, I believe, from core buddhism) in 'Gross National Happiness'.

[unbeliever]

In the interests of balance, I'll remind everyone that there's not, and never has been, a country, where there's zero harassment of minorities on the grounds of race/belief/colour.

 

It's human nature, and, where ever humans gather in large numbers, there will be harassment of minorities.

 

What I like about Bhutan, is, that despite it possessing many of the inherent defects that plague all countries, it has come up with an interesting and innovative concept (derived, I believe, from core buddhism) in 'Gross National Happiness'.

 

Can't say I agree. Some things are imperfect everywhere, but this is a ban on preaching minority faiths. That's completely unacceptable.

[Harrystottle]

What's your top 5 countries whose political systems we should emulate?

 

I only have experience of living under our system, but if you want to lay out five detailed alternatives I'll give you my opinion of them.

[tinfoilhat]

I only have experience of living under our system, but if you want to lay out five detailed alternatives I'll give you my opinion of them.

 

I'd did politics at A-level, I'm aware of the many alternatives, on paper at least. How do they work in practice?

[unbeliever]

There are several general changes that are often discussed. There are examples of these in Europe. They all have drawbacks as well as advantages.

I would have thought that the 3 big options would be:

 

Proportional representation.

Becoming a republic with an elected head of state.

Becoming a republic with an appointed head of state.

 

Probably also worth considering:

 

The legal status and rights of businesses (especially corporations).

The legal status and rights of trade unions (especially public sector).

[glennpickard]

There are some threats to democracy today, there always will be. With due acknowledgement to any short comings, the Westminster system is well proven. Yes politicians are a major problem once they are in power. Yes many will say anything to get elected, and then the electorate has an up hill struggle to keep them moving in the right direction.

Another major threat to democracy is money, which is why the UK system (incl. Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc) is wise to keep voting in the hands of the electorate, not the billionaires. This is becoming an insurmountable challenge in one major democracy.

 

Finally I agree that some liberties must be curtailed or removed in grave times of national threat, as in the UK 1939-45. The UK is not threatened by Axis powers today, but it has to be extremely alert & vigilant against external terror threats such as IS and al Qaeda, as well as domestic "radicalised" ones. It will have to take steps to curtail certain activities, that are not universally supported