India
Modi rules, Harvard doesn't
Aristotle: “Even if they have no share in office, the poor, provided only that they are not outraged or deprived of their property, will be quiet enough.” … “prevent the lower from getting more; they must be kept down, but not ill-treated. … Friendship [among members of the ruling class] we believe to be the greatest good of states and the preservative of them against revolutions.”
Jlowry: "We should avoid designating India or any other capitalist state as a democracy . They are oligarchies i.e. states where the rich rule as opposed to democracies where the poor or unpropertied rule. As Aristotle notes in his ”Politics” it is quite inadequate to define democracies as the rule of the majority and oligarchy as the rule of the few; it is rather that the poor are many and the rich few, which is why he notes that the mark of a democracy is selection by lot, that of an oligarchy election by ballot , which the rich will usually win.
Wal Buchenberg: "India is as good a democracy as the Netherlands or the USA. “Democracy” does not mean that “the majority of people” prevails. (Representative) democracy means only that the government is elected. Nowhere in the world has a democratic government really been elected by the majority of people. Donald Trump did not even have the majority of the votes cast – let alone the majority of the electorate. Modi is not chosen by the majority of the Indians. This is how democracy works."
Jlowry: "There is no such thing as ‘representative democracy’; democracy is either direct democracy or it is oligarchy. This can be verified empirically: look at the mother of all parliaments, Westminster. Historically it has overwhelmingly consisted of members who attended Oxford, Cambridge or private schools. Where are the members who
were plumbers, drivers or hairdressers? Between 1900 and
1960 1/3 of the ministers of the crown had attended a single school, Eton. Anything more unrepresentative would be hard to find!"
Aristotle, an anti-democrat, outlines the features that constitute a democracy."
Modi rules, Harvard doesn't
Aristotle: “Even if they have no share in office, the poor, provided only that they are not outraged or deprived of their property, will be quiet enough.” … “prevent the lower from getting more; they must be kept down, but not ill-treated. … Friendship [among members of the ruling class] we believe to be the greatest good of states and the preservative of them against revolutions.”
Jlowry: "We should avoid designating India or any other capitalist state as a democracy . They are oligarchies i.e. states where the rich rule as opposed to democracies where the poor or unpropertied rule. As Aristotle notes in his ”Politics” it is quite inadequate to define democracies as the rule of the majority and oligarchy as the rule of the few; it is rather that the poor are many and the rich few, which is why he notes that the mark of a democracy is selection by lot, that of an oligarchy election by ballot , which the rich will usually win.
Jlowry: "There is no such thing as ‘representative democracy’; democracy is either direct democracy or it is oligarchy. This can be verified empirically: look at the mother of all parliaments, Westminster. Historically it has overwhelmingly consisted of members who attended Oxford, Cambridge or private schools. Where are the members who
were plumbers, drivers or hairdressers? Between 1900 and
1960 1/3 of the ministers of the crown had attended a single school, Eton. Anything more unrepresentative would be hard to find!"
Aristotle, an anti-democrat, outlines the features that constitute a democracy."
Source: Michael Roberts' blog
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