Archive for the ‘Democracy’ Category

Five Revolting! reasons to fight for democracy today – Spiked

Because the basis of democracy the demos is under attack today

Most talk of threats to democracy today is focused on institutions the need to defend the US Constitution against President Trump, or the European Union against populism.

But by far the biggest threat to democracy is the renewed attack on those in whose name it rules the demos, from the Greek for the people. Indeed, the concerted establishment campaign against populism across the West is code for an assault on the populace who refuse to do as they are told in the voting booth.

The tendency for the revolting masses to use their democratic rights to vote for the wrong things from Brexit to Trump has brought the old poisonous anti-democratic prejudices bubbling back to the surface of our societies. While experts criticise the idea of giving power to low-information (aka low-intelligence) voters, politicians denounce the masses as deplorables.

And this is more than words. Western states increasingly invest authority in unelected, unaccountable institutions, from the courts to expert commissions and the EU, while the political class seeks to operate as a professional caste, insulated from public pressure behind closed doors.

Since democracy was created, oligarchical elites have sought to separate its two constituent elements demos and kratos, meaning power and control. Behind the rhetorical displays of support for democracy today they are seeking to do so again, rendering the modern system of representative democracy even less representative and democratic.

While everybody now pays lip service to democracy in principle, many in power are far less keen to spell out exactly what they mean by it in practice.

This reticence is unsurprising. The real meaning of democracy in Western societies remains largely unresolved, allowing powerful establishments to retain power behind the democratic smokescreen of systems of checks and balances designed to check the popular will.

Yet the recent rebellion by the revolting masses who voted to leave the anti-democratic EU has brought many unresolved issues of democracy and power back into play. It poses once more the historic question: who rules?

The elitist attempts to derail Brexit through the UKs highest courts and the House of Lords have even reopened the unfinished business of the 17th century English Revolution. Where does the real power lie between the Crown, the Commons, the Lords and the People? The image of prime minister Theresa May visiting the House of Lords this week, as a silent reminder to the unelected peers that she represents the expressed will of the people on Brexit, yet also acts in the name of the monarch, brought these questions into stark relief.

The Brexit revolt should start a new debate about the meaning of democracy, a chance to make history by sweeping away all the leftover rubbish of the Middle Ages.

One of the more disturbing trends in modern political history has been the way that the Western left has effectively abandoned the cause of democratic freedoms.

This was graphically illustrated in the EU referendum, where everybody from the mainstream Labour Party to the Corbynite Momentum group backed the establishments Remain campaign. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, the election of President Trump had American lefties wishing for everything from government-by-judges to martial law as an alternative to the US system of representative democracy.

Another bizarre episode this week illustrated how far things have gone. While unaccountable peers discussed how to derail or delay Brexit in the House of Lords, thousands of radicals were demonstrating outside parliament. They were not, however, protesting against this attempted anti-democratic usurpation of the British peoples will. No, the left was protesting against the proposed state visit to the UK by the elected US president on the grounds, as their online petition makes clear, that it would embarrass Her Majesty the Queen. If anything is embarrassing, it is this conservative royal toadyism dressed up as radical politics.

In contrast to todays state-centred leftism, however, the British left-wing tradition with which some of us identify has always prioritised the fight for democracy and free speech, from the Levellers through the Chartists to the radical wing of the Suffragettes.

Those who believe in progress fought for more democracy and freedom, not just as a good idea or an end in itself, but also as a means to change the world. The lefts abandonment of those historic causes marks the end of that era. The pressing need now is to start a new public debate about the sort of society we want, and a fight for more democracy that cuts across old political lines.

Once majority rule was attacked as a threat to the property rights of a powerful minority. Now it is more likely to be criticised in the modern language of human rights, as a threat to the civil liberties of minority identity groups or individuals.

This trend was graphically illustrated in the backlash against the 17.4million votes for Brexit and the near-63million votes for Donald Trump, with US protesters telling Trump backers that Your vote is a hate crime! while London protesters declared that Brexit is racist.

These arguments raise a fundamentally false counterposition between mass democracy and minority rights. Liberties, from the emancipation of slaves to womens rights, have been won and defended as part of the broader historical struggle for a more free and democratic society. How else does anybody imagine that individuals would have had the strength to wrest their rights from the powers that be, and hang on to their liberties, other than as part of a wider collective fighting for more democracy?

Of course there are no guarantees that democracy will always deliver the right decision. But the revolting masses whom the establishment fear and loathe remain the best hope for humanity. The alternative, of leaving our liberties in the hands of elite cliques of judges and officials, looks more like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

From Socrates to John Stuart Mill, many famous advocates of individual free speech have distrusted and even despised mass democracy. For the same reason, some who liked my previous book in defence of free speech, may balk at the arguments for democracy in this one. But Revolting! should rightly be seen as a companion to Trigger Warning, if not a sequel.

Democracy is discussed today as the best or least bad system of government, with technical suggestions put forward as to how it might be improved or refined, from proportional representation to peoples juries and more or more likely fewer referendums.

In the classical view, however, democracy was about much more than a system of politics or government. It was about how society was founded, embodying a view of humanity, seeing citizens as fit and able to participate and take decisions on an equal basis (even though those citizens were only white males). It was not just about the ability to place a cross in a box, but the fundamental values for which a democratic society and its members should stand and fight.

Thats why the current attempts to undermine democracy should at root be understood as further diminishing our standing as history-making human subjects.

It is fundamental to our modern humanity to be sovereign citizens with a say over our own lives and societies. The current upheavals provide both the pressing need and the opportunity for us to try to ignite anew the spirit of popular democracy, in a form fit for the 21st century. Drawing on the arguments pioneered by spiked, Revolting! is intended as a contribution to that debate, and a call to arms.

Mick Hume is spikeds editor-at-large. His new book, Revolting! How the Establishment is Undermining Democracy and what theyre afraid of, is published today by William Collins. Buy it here.

For permission to republish spiked articles, please contact Viv Regan.

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Five Revolting! reasons to fight for democracy today - Spiked

White House Delays New Ban on Refugees and Muslim Travelers – Democracy Now!

In Anaheim, California, video has emerged of an off-duty LAPD officer grabbing a 13-year-old boy by his hoodie and restraining him, before drawing a pistol and firing a single shot. No one was injured in Tuesdays incident, which was captured on a cellphone video that went viral on social media. The video shows a man in plainclothes holding a boy against his will, who says repeatedly, "Let me go." The officer is surrounded by other children, who eventually come to the aid of the boy, pushing the officer over a row of hedges. The man is then seen drawing a pistol from his waistband before a gunshot rings out. Anaheim police say the officer had an ongoing dispute against children who were walking on his lawn. Both the 13-year-old boy and his 15-year-old brother were arrested. The off-duty officer, who has not been identified, was questioned by Anaheim police and released. The LAPD said today he is on paid administrative leave. Overnight, hundreds of protesters gathered near the officers home, before marching through Anaheims streets and blocking intersections.

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White House Delays New Ban on Refugees and Muslim Travelers - Democracy Now!

Norway Is the ‘World’s Best Democracy’ We Asked Its People Why – NBCNews.com

Norway's Parliament. Kyrre Lien

Politicians in Norway are not as well paid as their American counterparts and most live a more modest, low-profile existence. The basic pay for U.S. senators and representatives is $174,000 compared to $108,000 in Norway.

Many Norwegians just can't shake the feeling that America elected "a reality star as president," according to Silje Ljdal, a 25-year-old barista. "It's just a reality show, the whole thing," she adds in disbelief.

Opinion seems to be just as scathing outside the city of Oslo.

Annette Dahl, a 26-year-old hunter from Norway's rural Telemark region, says U.S. politics "seems like a circus to me. [Trump] seems like kind of clown, you know? The way he talks and the things he says, it's hard to take him seriously."

Many are just as worried about Trump's substance as they are his style.

Despite almost 4,000 miles between them, Norway has always enjoyed a partnership with the White House and was one of the first nations to join NATO in 1949.

Its inhabitants can be forgiven for paying particular attention to Trump's foreign policy pronouncements; they have skin in the geopolitical game in the shape of a 120-mile border with Russia.

Just last month,

But under Trump, many Norwegians say his comments undermining NATO as "obsolete" have made them feel nervous. Norway is also one of the countries Trump has criticized for not paying the recommended 2 percent share toward the alliance's upkeep.

"It's kind of scary because we share a border with Russia, and we've got Putin turning quite aggressive," says Schiefloe, the carpenter.

"The world is going to change, I hope for the better but I fear it's going to be quite bad," adds Tor Bomann-Larsen, a 65-year-old writer from Drammen, a city 25 miles from Oslo. "We've never seen anything like Trump before, it's something quite new and the world is shaking."

Norwegians also worry about man-made climate change, something Trump has repeatedly labeled a hoax and once even suggested was a conspiracy invented by the Chinese.

His claims go against scientific consensus, but they also threaten Norway's delicate ecosystem, where the northern ice is crucial to the symbolic survival of polar bears and other Arctic creatures.

"If I met Donald Trump I would invite him to Svalbard, in the high north, and I would show him what the climate change is doing to our environment," Norwegian Local Government Minister Jan Tore Sanner told NBC News during an interview in the country's Parliament building.

Like others in his government, Sanner says he is optimistic about working with America's new leader. Asked about Trump's environmental policies, however, and his tone changes slightly.

"The ice is melting," he says. "The climate is changing the way we can the can live in the world."

While the statistics and anecdotes may make liberal hearts flutter, Norway is far from a leftist utopia.

It's current government is led by the Conservative Party and includes lawmakers from the right-wing populist Progress Party, which wants to slash taxes and immigration amid

And of course not everyone here agrees that Norwegian politics is all that great in the first place.

"I don't feel we have the best democracy in the world," says Steinar Vetterstad, a 67-year-old former construction worker from the town of Hokksund. "There are a lot of things that aren't right."

Steinar Vetterstad Kyrre Lien

He has lived off disability benefits ever since he was injured at work.

Symptomatic of the global populism that helped Trump into the White House and Britain vote for Brexit last year, Vetterstad used to support the left-wing Labour Party but in 2013 switched his vote to Progress.

"It is the politicians in Oslo ... don't represent the people anymore ... [they're] just politicians in suits," he says.

That there is such healthy debate in Norway betrays the violence in its recent past. Less than six years ago its democracy came under direct attack.

On July 22, 2011, white supremacist Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb among Oslo's government buildings. Wearing a police officer's uniform, he then drove to the island of Utya, around 20 miles away, and began shooting children staying at a camp run by the left-wing Labour Party. In all, he killed 77 people.

Sanner, the member of Norway's Cabinet, took NBC News to the site of the car bomb.

"It was an attack on Norwegian democracy and ... he killed a lot of young people, young people who were engaged in politics," he says, looking out over where the blast occurred. "They were 16 years old, 18 years old. They just started to be involved in politics and they lost their lives."

The Parliament building in Oslo. Kyrre Lien

"We are still shocked by what has happened, but we will never give up our values," the then-prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said in a speech at the time. "Our response is more democracy, more openness, and more humanity."

Likewise, Sanner sees that dark chapter as a stark warning of what happens when democratic principles are disregarded.

"We didn't think it could happen here but it happened here," he says. "So that shows we have to have an open society, a democratic society, and we cannot take it for granted."

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Norway Is the 'World's Best Democracy' We Asked Its People Why - NBCNews.com

Civics Lessons From the ‘World’s Best Democracy’ – NBC Chicago

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Norwegians are more more likely to vote in their elections than Americans and their rival political parties focus on how they can collaborate, not attack one another, part of why the nation continues to be named the best democracy in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit, NBC News reported.

That same report from the London-based consultancy this year downgraded the United States from a "full democracy" to a "flawed democracy," linked to lobbying and American voters losing trust in political institutions.

Neither is a significant issue in Norway.

"There's something about our culture that says it's very important to vote," 18-year-old Aurora Aven explained to NBC News at an ice rink in Oslo. "Norway has such a good system, so no one feels left out and no one feels misunderstood. Everybody knows their voice will be heard."

Published 2 hours ago | Updated 42 minutes ago

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Civics Lessons From the 'World's Best Democracy' - NBC Chicago

Planting trees in the bastion of democracy – Jerusalem Post Israel News

The Jerusalem Hills are one of the most beautiful sights in the world. The peaceful, rolling green hills, thick with trees and vineyards, are world renowned and deeply evocative.

On a clear day you can see for miles at Jerusalems Yad Kennedy Memorial in the Aminadav Forest. So Ive been led to believe. Last Wednesday was not one of those days. In true British style, heavy mist had fallen upon Jerusalem and rain fell relentlessly sideways.

The inclement weather had arrived just in time for me to plant one of the trees awarded to me by Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) to celebrate my recent knighthood. This moving gift was a particular honor for me and Id been looking forward to this moment.

I first came to Israel in 1980 and fell in love with the place and its people.

Israel is a bastion of democracy in a region plagued by chaos and autocracy.

It celebrates and protects the same values that we in Britain cherish; the rule of law, free speech, freedom of movement and freedom of assembly.

The Jewish state has achieved a seemingly impossible amount in its young life. If more countries had set out to build modern democratic states and invested in their people and futures, the world would be a more prosperous and peaceful place.

Israel has changed so much since that first visit. With its high-rises and booming high-tech scene, Tel Aviv is a city transformed. The country is moving ever closer to achieving 100% recycled drinking water through desalination; a game changer for a country the very survival of which was only recently still at risk through its lack of water resources. One need only drive into Jerusalem to see the major infrastructure investment in the countrys road and rail network.

In sheer defiance of its tough neighborhood and limited natural resources, Israel has fast become one of the worlds most advanced countries.

Trees are strong symbols for life and the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and JNF UK have done important work in making Israel bloom by planting hundreds of thousands of trees. It is a message of rebirth and new life. The sight of trees peacefully swaying in the wind as one leaves behind the horrors displayed at Yad Vashem is a testament to the peaceful future Jews have long sought in their homeland.

Its a privilege to literally put down roots in this country. It was particularly fitting to plant the tree so close to Tu Bishvat New Year of the Trees.

As the heavens continued to pour I picked up the big green watering can and heartily poured water over the young sapling. A truly Monty Python-esque way to conclude the moving ceremony.

The most important aspect of CFIs work is our program of parliamentary delegations to Israel. It is only by seeing Israel that you can begin to understand it.

The extensive itinerary took us from meetings with high-tech incubators in Tel Aviv, all the way to Sderot on the Gaza border (which has the unfortunate reputation as the bomb shelter capital of the world) and Ramallah in the West Bank.

No CFI fact-finding mission is the same and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus much anticipated visit to Washington, DC, provided an interesting backdrop to our visit. After all the hype and political gamesmanship, Netanyahus joint press conference with President Donald Trump provided no shortage of drama.

The prospect of a more public regional relationship between Israel and its Gulf neighbors is interesting.

The Palestinians, currently committed to a counterproductive unilateral agenda, are only really likely to return to the negotiating table with the support and encouragement from fellow Arabs. Shared concerns over Iran could offer a previously unforeseen way to securing a peace agreement.

President Trumps opening of the door to a one-state solution was a major error. Whether this was the latest careless remark from The Donald or evidence of a major shift in US policy away from a two-state solution, it will only embolden the wrong people.

Israels right wing and Palestinian rejectionists find themselves in agreement.

Let me be clear: any option other than a two-state solution risks threatening the Jewish, democratic nature of the State of Israel.

The importance of Israels need for defensible borders was brought home to us when we visited the Gaza border, and were reminded of the threats that Israel faces on a daily basis. An elderly resident of the Netiv Haasara moshav recalled how a Hamas tunnel came out of the ground just yards from a kindergarten, with the potential of carrying out mass Israeli casualties.

The trip highlighted that both Israelis and Palestinians do not currently believe that any progress on resolving the conflict is likely in the near future.

Young Palestinians we met with spoke of distrust of their political leadership, while Israelis were split on what a Trump administration would mean for Israel. The only thing the Israelis agreed on was their shared hope for a peaceful future, and that the country would be going into elections in the near future.

CFI and many of my parliamentary colleagues have been running a campaign over the past few years calling for the UK to allocate a greater share of funds we give to the Palestinian Authority for peaceful coexistence projects. We firmly believe that bringing Israelis and Palestinians together to break down misconceptions about the other is important to ensuring the long-term success of any peace deal.

One of these deserving charities is Save a Childs Heart, where we met a group of children from Gaza who had traveled with their mothers to receive life-saving heart surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.

We also met a Palestinian trainee pediatric cardiologist; one of 120 physicians and nurses trained by Save a Childs Heart from the Palestinian territories and developing countries that then take their skills home. Projects like these transform lives and deserve our fullest possible support.

We also visited Beit Issie Shapiro, a charity providing cutting-edge services to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. Its Sindian Center in the Arab Israeli town of Kalansuwa is the first early intervention center in the Arab sector in Israel.

It is radically changing how disabilities are viewed in the Arab sector.

As we were told by the parents of disabled children, their shared concerns for their children transcends politics and the conflict and regularly brings Arab and Jewish Israeli families together.

Interest in strengthening bilateral trade between the UK and Israel was also welcome. It is clear that there is much interest in Israel in the Jewish state and the UK negotiating a free trade agreement. With trade already at record levels, this offers hope of yet more shared prosperity in the future.

Its been a real pleasure playing a small part bringing our two great countries together. Thank you very much to CFI for this honor and the JNF/JNF UK for arranging such a memorable occasion. I look forward to visiting my own little piece of Israel for many years to come.

The author is parliamentary chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel and the prime ministers UK envoy on post-Holocaust issues.

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Planting trees in the bastion of democracy - Jerusalem Post Israel News