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Representative Democracy is increasingly empty of meaning

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Is representative democracy being emptied?
Yes 100%  100%  [ 3 ]
No 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 3

xenon13
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19 May 2013, 8:04 pm

The real power is not held by representatives who are elected, and governments produced by such representatives always follow the same policies cooked up elsewhere, and it does not matter who you vote for, no matter who gets in, these policies are always implemented. Take these Free Trade agreements. It does not matter who you vote for, these anti-democratic pacts are always signed and they serve in part to further limit the power of our elected officials and increase the power of transnational corporations in particular. Central Banks also are, according to accepted dogma, to be beyond any elected power. If elected officials are forced always to implement agendas cooked up elsewhere, and this becomes increasingly obvious, then this surely serves to undermine the legitimacy of the system. It is my opinion that this process is well underway and that soon enough we will accept in Western countries to be under a system that is not democratic.



ruveyn
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20 May 2013, 6:57 am

xenon13 wrote:
The real power is not held by representatives who are elected, and governments produced by such representatives always follow the same policies cooked up elsewhere, and it does not matter who you vote for, no matter who gets in, these policies are always implemented. Take these Free Trade agreements. It does not matter who you vote for, these anti-democratic pacts are always signed and they serve in part to further limit the power of our elected officials and increase the power of transnational corporations in particular. Central Banks also are, according to accepted dogma, to be beyond any elected power. If elected officials are forced always to implement agendas cooked up elsewhere, and this becomes increasingly obvious, then this surely serves to undermine the legitimacy of the system. It is my opinion that this process is well underway and that soon enough we will accept in Western countries to be under a system that is not democratic.


What you say may very well be true, but you don't have to put up with it. Just move into the woods and live hand to mouth. You will not be subject to the will of others.

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Tequila
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20 May 2013, 7:00 am

Large corporations do not like free trade. They like protectionism and using government to strangle the smaller competition. (Which is why they like the EU.)

Genuine free trade threatens their business.



xenon13
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20 May 2013, 10:18 am

Tequila wrote:
Large corporations do not like free trade. They like protectionism and using government to strangle the smaller competition. (Which is why they like the EU.)

Genuine free trade threatens their business.


What they call Free Trade Agreements are not really free trade at all, they are managed schemes for the benefit of the powerful.



Tequila
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20 May 2013, 12:04 pm

xenon13 wrote:
Tequila wrote:
Large corporations do not like free trade. They like protectionism and using government to strangle the smaller competition. (Which is why they like the EU.)

Genuine free trade threatens their business.


What they call Free Trade Agreements are not really free trade at all, they are managed schemes for the benefit of the powerful.


No - free trade is exactly that. Free trade. The EU is not supportive of free trade, it is supportive of rules and telling people what they can and cannot do. The corporations have an unhealthy influence on international bodies like the EU.

I want smaller businesses to flourish and for large corporations to lose their in-built state-sanctioned power and advantage and for that you need for everyone to be able to buy and sell products and services freely and to act against monopolies.



thomas81
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20 May 2013, 12:32 pm

Tequila wrote:
Large corporations do not like free trade. They like protectionism and using government to strangle the smaller competition. (Which is why they like the EU.)

Genuine free trade threatens their business.


The problem isnt the EU in principle, its the people who are running the EU.

If the EU was run with the right heart it could be an effective force to protect the regular joes instead of the fat cats. The challenge is to get the correct sort of people into Brussels rather than doing it the UKIP way of burning our bridges.

Although I think in Northern Ireland the EU has been largely helpful to small businesses, NI has benefited from European redevelopment funding due to it being a conflicted region.


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Tequila
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20 May 2013, 2:07 pm

thomas81 wrote:
The problem isnt the EU in principle, its the people who are running the EU.


That's never going to change. The same kind of ideologically anti-democratic people have been in charge of running it since day one.

The EU is a take it or leave it thing. Either you like being told what's best for you and you do what they say or you don't and decide that running your own affairs is better. Iceland was a basket case in 2009 due to the financial crisis. They rejected the idea of joining the EU, they let their banks fail and they now have growth rates that the EU can only dream of. A request was tabled to join the EU years ago, and most Icelanders have regretted it ever since. The anti-EU Independence Party, that sweeped to power last month, is tasked with the job of withdrawing the application form. I think it's around 75%-ish of Icelanders that are against EU membership.

For this reason, I support a free trade agreement with the EU like what this country was told that we'd signed up for in 1975.



Last edited by Tequila on 20 May 2013, 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tequila
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20 May 2013, 2:11 pm

thomas81 wrote:
The challenge is to get the correct sort of people into Brussels rather than doing it the UKIP way of burning our bridges.


You know how the parliament works, right? That it's simply a revising chamber? That all the laws originate from the unelected European Commissioners, that we can't remove?



Tequila
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20 May 2013, 2:16 pm

thomas81 wrote:
NI has benefited from European redevelopment funding due to it being a conflicted region.


It's sucking on the welfarist teat, that's what Northern Ireland is doing. NI is grotesquely welfare dependent and it needs needs to shape up and become productive again. The Troubles are long, long over, and Northern Ireland is using it as an excuse to avoid moving forward and progressing.

Personally, I'm all for half-direct democracy. If Northern Ireland wants to set the business tax rate at 99%, I'll be happy with that if that's what they want to do.