19.634 Google

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 634.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 06:54:33 +0000
         From: Dimitar Iliev <d_iliev_at_abv.bg>
         Subject: Re: 19.630 Google

>What everyone seems to miss in this discussion is that democracy means
>government by the people. If the people elect a government that not
>only aproves of torture but makes systematic use of it or if said
>government puts human beings in jail for years without a trial and
>then the selfsame people proceed to reelect this government for
>another four year term does not make it less of a democracy. The same
>can be said of governments elected by the majority of its people in
>places like Iran, Palestine and anywhere else the US of A disaproves
>of.
>
>professor dennis cintra leite (retired)
>

let us not start a debate over the Middle East
and the controversial intervention of the US there.

the point is completely different.

the point is that 'democracy' is a term defining
the way a government acts towards its citizens,
and not (or rather not only) a way a government is elected.

firstly, fair elections don't justify all the
actions of a government after it has been
elected. fair and democratic elections are a
process of delegating rights *only* under certain
conditions and terms of use. Nixon won fair and
democratic elections,but abused the rights
delegated to him - see Watergate. not to mention
Hitler, who also won completely fair and
democratic elections and then brought all of Europe to ruins.

secondly, as a citizen of a former Communist
country, I can give a detailed account on how
"spontaneous" demostrations, "fair" elections and
"free" expression of people's will were organized
by the authorities some 20 years ago. it is naive
to always take those at a face value.

Best regads,

Dimitar Iliev
PhD candidate in Classics
University of Sofia
Bulgaria

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Received on Tue Feb 28 2006 - 02:13:39 EST