MovieChat Forums > Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) Discussion > America is not even a democracy, it's a ...

America is not even a democracy, it's a republic!

posted 12 years ago by WWu777
5 replies | jump to latest

America is not even a democracy, it's a republic! See the article below:

http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page31a.htm

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[–] gabby_bm 12 years ago

Thank goodness for that! A full democracy scares the hell out of me. A dictatorship of 60% can be as bad as a dictatorship of one.

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[–] avortac 10 years ago

"A dictatorship of 60% can be as bad as a dictatorship of one. "

Democracy is the dictatorship of anything from one human being over 50% to 100% of humans (in which case, it's not really a dictatorship anymore - though, I think "persons" are used, so that 'humans' have no say, actually. And 'the people' have actually consented to being governed in this fashion.. THAT scares me the most).

So where did you get the number 60% from?

51% would be more symbolic, though of course not completely accurate either, because even 50.00001% would still be a majority (if such a number can be accurate).

[–] gabby_bm 10 years ago

I went with 60% because that's the majority needed to pass in the senate (cloture ruling). It wasn;t completely arbitrary, but not entirely, flawlessly accurate either. It just seemed like a good round number to use as an example.

besides, a majority of 60% or even 80% doesn;t necessarily make it right or good. But i can't really argue against a consensus of 100%.

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[–] BalanceOfPower 12 years ago

I don't know what your point is or how it relates to the movie, but it sounds to me like you're splitting political science hairs.

If this were a political science college course you'd be absolutely correct, we are not a true democracy, we are a representative republic with a central federal goverment - made up of three co-equal branches - overseeing a collection of individual states, each with their own governments.

Nowadays, however, "democracy" is informal shorthand used by many for a democratic society, which can come in the form of a true democracy, republic, a constitutional monarchy (like England), or any number of permutations found in the world. Generally speaking, democratic societies not only give their populations electoral power to choose their elected leaders but also give them guaranteed rights and liberties.

So your point is moot if you're trying to split hairs regarding this movie's use of the word.

[–] generationofswine 9 years ago

Wrong, it's a republic that tells its people its a democracy