If you were to answer this question, I bet you could make a long list!
This is my list. While my list would be different than yours, I think you would agree with most of my items.
I call my list: “The 12 Limitations of Western Democracy.” It constitutes a big part of Chapter 2 of my book “Tiered Democratic Governance: Governing Ourselves in the 21st Century.”
Limitation #1: Political Parties Create a Very Exclusive Club
Limitation #2: Political Parties are Not Think Tanks
Limitation #3: The Political Process is not a Screening Process
Limitation #4: Political Parties are Mostly Marketing Machines
Limitation #5: Simplistic Explanations of Problems and Solutions
Limitation #6: Elected Officials Spend Too Much Time on Politics, not Governance
Limitation #7: Voters are Poor Judges
Limitation #8: Political Parties do not Plan Well for the Future
Limitation #9: Political Parties are Beholden to Those Who Feed the Marketing Machine
Limitation #10: Political Parties are Incapable of Dealing with Internal Corruption
Limitation #11: The Adversarial Nature of Politics
Limitation #12: Inability to Positively Shape Society
Chapter 2 provides more details of these 12 Limitations.
I created this list not to complain but to identify things to fix. This is a big difference.
In Chapter 3, I introduce a new democracy. I then explain how this new democracy fixes all these flaws.
I should add that this new democracy would filter out people like Donald Trump from high office. This claim deserves investigation, does it not?
If my claim is valid, then imagine all the energy that could have been spent on bettering society: climate change, social justice, reining in corporations, new technologies, and more thoughtful geopolitics in the past seven years!
My book is available for a free read from my website.
Published on Medium 2023
Thelma Delgers: American Hero or American Fool?
Chasing Noam Chomsky is Futile
