So I’m going to start in Europe. Central Europe to be specific. I do this for two reasons. Firstly because I’m Slovenian and this is what I know and live in. If Americans can make casual assumptions about what is and isn’t a key feature of Parliamentary Democracy when talking government, I think I can make them too. Maybe this will make it easier for readers to detect and dissent my cached thoughts? Or maybe think about unexamined beliefs of their own. For example did you know that many modern western Parliamentary democracies have, even one very close culturally to the US have weak separation of powers? Or don’t really have free speech as you know it?
As an American (immigrant from Eastern Europe, but that’s not very relevant) I would find an argument against democracy based on who well it works in Eastern Europe about as relevant to American democracy, as someone on lesswrong would find an argument against rationality based on the mistakes Spock makes.
I was talking of Central not Eastern Europe. While Slovenia is indeed a former communist country, I focus far more on the states we have sought to model ourselves after (Germany, Scandinavia, ect.) that any deviations or imperfections we may have to them comparing ourselves by our standards. Also I suggest you check your assumptions, Slovenia is a developed country by nearly any ranking, and indeed one of the very much nicer parts of the planet to live in and according to international opinion and the estimates of various organizations one of the “moredemocratic” or “free” ones.
I mean sure they could be wrong, indeed I do suspect they are biased. But if they are wrong then basically democratic societies (naturally America is apriori the golden standard of democracy ) seem to systematically mislead its citizens to what a democratic society is or isn’t. That’s a bad isn’t it? And isn’t the NYT and your own educated opinion often leaning towards such models? Aren’t there many many people who criticze the US for supposedly not measuring up to the Liberal Democracies of Europe? I don’t think they mean Spain or Italy or Ukraine. I do think they mean places like Germany or Austria or Finland. And those are just the places I’m going to talk about!
As an American (immigrant from Eastern Europe, but that’s not very relevant) I would find an argument against democracy based on who well it works in Eastern Europe about as relevant to American democracy, as someone on lesswrong would find an argument against rationality based on the mistakes Spock makes.
I was talking of Central not Eastern Europe. While Slovenia is indeed a former communist country, I focus far more on the states we have sought to model ourselves after (Germany, Scandinavia, ect.) that any deviations or imperfections we may have to them comparing ourselves by our standards. Also I suggest you check your assumptions, Slovenia is a developed country by nearly any ranking, and indeed one of the very much nicer parts of the planet to live in and according to international opinion and the estimates of various organizations one of the “more democratic” or “free” ones.
I mean sure they could be wrong, indeed I do suspect they are biased. But if they are wrong then basically democratic societies (naturally America is apriori the golden standard of democracy ) seem to systematically mislead its citizens to what a democratic society is or isn’t. That’s a bad isn’t it? And isn’t the NYT and your own educated opinion often leaning towards such models? Aren’t there many many people who criticze the US for supposedly not measuring up to the Liberal Democracies of Europe? I don’t think they mean Spain or Italy or Ukraine. I do think they mean places like Germany or Austria or Finland. And those are just the places I’m going to talk about!