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Memories of the 28th Century

Democracy and weapons

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Apparently, many people do not understand what democracy is, and many of them mistakenly think that the U.S.A. is a democracy. Democracy means that the people rule, from the Greek demos kratos. In a democracy, the people in assembly vote on the laws and how the state will be governed; how much will be paid to whom for doing whatever. That erroneous thinking results in republic and democracy being conflated. A republic is a form of government in which the people choose representatives who determine laws, government policies, etc. There are very few democracies in the world, because it has been found that democracy does not work with large numbers of people. The practical upper limit of population for democracy is about twenty-five thousand. I Ancient times democracy in Greek cities broke down and they changed to monarchies, for the most part. After Ancient Rome threw out the Etruscan kings, they adopted a republican form of government, in which the people elected senators and tribunes, and the senate choose other officials. Some features of the republic continued until Rome fell, even though the empire was ruled by an emperor. Democracy has been tried in some places since then, but it was found that the population had to be small, and the people had to have similar assumptions about their culture and the role of government. Today the governments of Switzerland and Iceland are partly democratic and mostly republican. In the U.S.A., the traditional New England town was democratic, and it still exists in some places, but it was found that it didn't work when the population grew large, or when the population became diverse.
Some people will disagree, but democracy is probably the best form of government for a small polity, while benevolent monarchy is the best government for large state.
(Please note that the word 'state' is used in the general meaning of a sovereign entity.)
When the U.S.A. was being set up, the founders rejected democracy, because it was regarded as "mob rule", and they probably were right. The U.S. Constitution defines a limited, constitutional, federal republic, in which the states (sovereign entities) lent some of their sovereignty to the federal government, so they could better operate as an alliance or federation. In the time since then, democracy has come to be regarded in a better light than previously, so many people talk about the U.S.A. being a democracy, when they either know perfectly well that it is not, or they don't know what democracy is. Part of the problem is that there are political parties named, Democrat and Republican, and people identify those concepts with the parties; although the names of the parties were selected to attract votes and have nothing to do with the ideology of the party. It seems to be related to the love for ignorance that the American people have. Calling things what they are is simpler, but it means that people will have to remember definitions, and many people have trouble doing things like that.

The conclusions are that there are now wealthy democracies now, because there are no democracies. For that reason, there is no basis for your assertion that gun control exists in wealthy democracies. Starting with a false premise can sometimes lead to horrible results, but your false assertion leads to an admission that you are ignorant of the basics of political philosophy. The next step would be to look at why adults in Switzerland possess assault rifles that they have been trained to use\ and how that would be a good model for the U.S.A.


Democracy (From Ancient Greek: δημοκρατία, romanized: dēmokratía, dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule'[1]) is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation" (from wikipedia)

Is the United States a democracy or a republic?
While often categorized as a democracy, the United States is more accurately defined as a constitutional federal republic. What does this mean? “Constitutional” refers to the fact that government in the United States is based on a constitution which is the supreme law of the United States.https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...AZGtqMlicei3BY

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