What Is Democracy?

[Verb]

Perhaps a 100% jump in the population of the planet has something to do with it?

It has nothing to do with it. There was tragical decline in Russian population (-500 000 per year) since 1990. And mass crime appeared here exactly at those days. Also there was mass invasion of different destructive sects which came from nowhere. Chechens obtained freedom and suddenly realized that they are chechens and immediately started to blow their women on the russian streets in the name of Allah. Jump in the world population (in Soviet too) was even during Soviet rule, but anyway, nothing similiar took place. Soviet idea was internationalism and "friendship of nations", nobody was allowed to think differently. When USSR collapsed, everyone started to think that he is the hub of the universe.

The same took place in ex-Yugoslavia. Under Tito's rule there was peace. Then everybady started to slaugther everyone. Now they organized weak dwarfish states with comical unspecified "independence" (from who exactly? from each other?), some of them are very poor and the only buisness they have is to sell drugs, slave-prostitutes, terrorist's activity etc.

And please, my political inclinations have noting common with Soviet Empire.

[Terry]

Verb, you mentioned it was the safest place to live in the world, but, was it so?
Yes, nobody used to steal anything, everybody lived in peace, but, it was a forced peace, imposed by that time governing. If someone tried to disagree with the country's policy, he was deported or closed to jail.
Was it safe then?

[Aeneas]

Verb, you mentioned it was the safest place to live in the world, but, was it so?
Yes, nobody used to steal anything, everybody lived in peace, but, it was a forced peace, imposed by that time governing. If someone tried to disagree with the country's policy, he was deported or closed to jail.
Was it safe then?

Terry,
There was plenty of theft, highway robbery and perversion. Nobody talked about it. The media carried out a campaign of mass brain washing and was allowed to present ONLY super optimistic news.
Let's not even talk about repression.
Verb,
you may wish to believe the story of the rosy past (a vision shared by many right wing conservatives as well) but it's simply not the truth. And since you think that Yugoslavia was all that, please remember that Stalin sent assassins to dispatch Tito. When Tito caught them, he had them executed and evidence of the executions was sent to Moscow with a message for Stalin that if he tries again, Tito's assassins would not fail.
It was lots of fun back then. But not for the folks torn away from their families and sent to Siberia or thrown out of helicopters.

[Verb]

it was a forced peace

I don't tell you that it is a perfection). It is just an observation. But generally speaking, peace is always result of force, peace is always backed by force. Jugoslavia didn't had nukes so she had no rights for peace. Russia have 10 000 missiles, many of them equipped with 6-10 warheads each - NATO will never "bring western democracy" to Russia)))) God bless Russian nukes! :-) Russia needs her own democracy)

he was deported or closed to jail

Just compare quantity of victims. Maybe sometimes it is better to close few ones who disagree in jail than to loose thousands in civil war? Civil war starts when there are too many who disagree. Demonstrations and marches have always been banned by force with tear-gas and batons from time to time even in "democratic" USA. And please notice that USA under Bush rule has legalised tortures for the prisoners of war. Now lets think about democracy. And please notice that Adolf Gitler was elected during democratic elections.

[M.Helen]

China has always had cruel policies. If comparing China and former USSR, I would say the latter is a piece of cake. Did you know that certain Chinese sportsmen are simply obliged to win a medal on different competitions, if not, they can be deported to land works. Despite this lack of democracy, China seems to be developing very fast.

[Aeneas]

Verb,
by cybernetic measures, Russia is a real democracy. There is no censorship and now Russia has the fastest growing internet population by a long shot.
Take a look at these incredible statistics (27% vs UK's 10%):
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2417
and the fertility rate is growing steadily and it will match mortality in 2011. Certain factors that contributed to the high mortality rate of the Russian population have deep roots in the early Soviet era. Alcoholism and pollution are prime examples. Also the extreme existentialist nature of Marxism contributed to despair and suicides; e.g. suicide rates in Latin American and Carri bean nations are notoriously low while Cubans have some of the highest suicide rates in the world.
I hope you or some other Russian would start a new topic here and discuss the RuNet and some of the great Russian internet phenomena such as the Padonki and Yandex.

[Benn]

Eastern countries are now developing very fast in the field of technology and internet. You all probably are aware of the fact that America has no good programmers. All the programmers are hired from abroad.

[SiD]

In something Verb is right in something he is not. I like words about nukes =))). Very truth actualy, but only concerning big countries. NATO wont bring thier "democracy" but terrorists are not afraid of nukes. Like in media it is said: they had no nationality, no religion, no morale (we only need to add no gender, no face, nothing that makes human )) ). I tend to agree that USSR was seafer. Well in USSR were problems no one talked about but wenn all started to talk about every problems thier number didnt become less, even more problems appeared. Not to mention how many tragedies our "democratic" reforms brought. The wery word is lost its true meaning. Wenn all saw rise of prises, lowering of quality of life, wenn criminal became almost official proffession western leaders if asked answered: yes it is democracy. Who needs freedom of speech if he isnt paid in months and not sure about future? So the democracy in Russia is not viewed like in the west. I do not mention those "liberals" who struggle for freedom of oligharhs. That is why i think this term "sovereign democracy" is needed.
But i cant agree that we need to put in jail or who disagree. It is way to tyrany in its worst kind. I think if power that curently run the state is macking good life for most of citizens than it is good power. No matter is it monarchy, republick, tyrany, democracy. Wenn government forget that they must improve life of people and think opposite, such government is doomed to fall sooner or later.

[Faw_Peter]

agree with you Sid. The point is to make the population happy, regardless of the way you use. If the population is happy about the tyranny, let them have tyranny, if it's want democracy, let it have it.

[independent]

agree with you Sid. The point is to make the population happy, regardless of the way you use. If the population is happy about the tyranny, let them have tyranny, if it's want democracy, let it have it.

Indeed if majority of population will have tyranny - it can still be called democracy. Funny :-P
Today we define democracy very oddly - we have US - so called "leading" democracy where desissions
are made so badly that only a small minority accept their administration - and still we don't questionize
is it a real democracy. Even better, we are calling some countries anti-democracies regardless their
administration is supported by majority of their population...
Might be we should stop exporting "western democracy" so desperately and be more willing to accept
different views of it.

[Benn]

I see your point and am sharing it. How can the US be democratic if it doesn't get on well with the most of Southern American countries? A democracy means the engagement of all opinions, not one or two.

[Peach]

Democracy is a form of government in which the right to govern is vested in the citizens of a country or a state and exercised through a majority rule. It is derived from the Greek δημοκρατία (dēmokratía (info)), "popular government",[1] which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos), "people" and κράτος (krátos), "rule, strength" in the middle of the fifth-fourth century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens following a popular uprising in 508 BC.[2] A democracy can denote either direct or indirect rule by the people. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy</a><!-- m -->

[kavitha]

I think democracy is something like people van directly have some powers and they can choose their government by electing the nominees,A democratic country is where people themselves will be given some rights to do something.
A democracy is like ruling by a majority.Its output depends on what the elected people do.