On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 09:43:56PM +0100, P. T. Zoltowski wrote:
>> Here's a story . . . my local food co-op recently had a vote to boycott a
>> product. There are @16,000 members. In the end the vote was 639 for the
>> boycott and 338 against. I call it the tyranny of the majority of the
>> minority. Still leaves a bitter taste . . .
>>
>> The point being that unless folks participate and have made a well-founded
>> decision (not just on hearsay), democracy doesn't work very well . . .
>
>It's because voting is not a synonym of democracy, it is, and should
>be, only the last resort of it, when everything else fails. In
>tyrannies there's also voting, and even more people participate in it,
>but that doesn't make it any more democratic, because it's just a mean
>for transfering responsibility. When one can only vote if he wants to
>be drowned of hanged, what democracy it can be? Focusing on voting
>misses the most important point, why voting is needed in the first
>place? For most of the time it's not needed at all,

I agree entirely with this. All important points.


>because the true
>essence of democracy is to ensure freedom, freedom of choice. There
>isn't the only one option, there isn't even the best option, and can't
>be, because people differ from each other, and they should be allowed
>to whenever possible. We shouldn't vote what sex, what skin colour,
>what belief is the right one. They all are, as long as they don't
>destroy other people's freedom.

But this is all very off the mark. You are describing liberalism (libertas--freedom) here, an impoverished individualism that does not at all capture the essence of democracy, which is, instead, the idea that people (demos) retain their own power (kratia), and actively use it to make decisions collectively. In a democracy we are not autonomous individuals free to choose whatever we want as long as it doesn't limit the freedom of others (this is Mill's harm principle--again, liberalism), instead we are each of us connected to all others in a demos that makes decisions (exercises its collective power) together. Voting is only one (not very democratic) way to do that, but of course deliberation, consensus processes, general assemblies, spokescouncils, etc. are options as well.