Thoughts on Democracy

A few quotes on Democracy I came across while doing research for the paper that is due Monday:

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people" -- Abe Lincoln's definition of democracy.

Democracy is definitely for the people -- history has proved that.  It is also of the people.  But it is the 'by the people' part of this that is tricky.  Yes, the purpose of democracy is to have government by the people, but what happens when you fast forward time from Lincoln's time to our own? All Americans no longer choose to participate in the democratic government.  Many people are against voting, because they think it 'does not count'.  As much as the government and political leaders encourage people to vote, not everyone does...and this is a rather sad occurrence. 

"There is no such thing as the 'perfect form of government' on earth, but any other form of government produces even less desirable results than democracy.  Until today, no other form of government has been invented that could regulate public affairs better than democracy" -- Sir Winston Churchill.

The same can be said of our capitalistic economic system.  Often times democracy and capitalism are blurred together.  But that is beside the point.  In no other nation has democracy worked as well as in the United States...nor has any other type of government created the most wealthy and powerful nation on earth -- the U.S..  While indeed this is something that people can boast, it is better to look at the 'success' of America's democracy from a more critical eye (de Tocqueville!).  I think that the reason democracy works so well in America is that it gives people freedom and equality...and freedom holds a certain power and passion within the American people that makes them want to make democracy work. Which brings me to...

"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality.  But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude" -- Alexis de Tocqueville.

de Tocqueville says it all -- democracy allows for freedom and equality.  And who doesn't want that?  Every American takes pride in their freedom, we even have the Fourth of July to celebrate it!  Even though today's democracy is much more complicated than that during de Tocqueville's time, freedom and equality is still preferred to equality and servitude.  We fought the civil war to get rid of servitude --why would we ever try to gain a form of it back with socialism?  The Marxist idea of socialism is viable...but it has never been achieved the way he planned it to.  In my Capitalism class during Jterm, we read a lot of Marx's writings...and I have to admit, his idea of how socialism would play out sounds like a good one.  But this has never happened. No nation has ever achieved socialism to the degree where it would bring about peace and everyone would be happy, as Marx wanted.  So, for now, democracy seems to be the right choice for our nation...as nothing better has seemed to work or has been discovered.