An interesting statement I found in the book 'the soft revolution' which im trying to read before the end of the semester.
"is it not ironical that in a planned society of controlled workers given compulsary assignments, where religious expression is supressed, the press controlled, and all media of communication censored, where a puppet government is encouraged but denied any real authority, where great attention is given to efficiency an...d character reports, and attendance at cultural assemblies is compulsary,where it is avowed that all will be administered to each according to his needs and performance required from each according to his abilities, and where those who flee are tracked down, returned and punished for trying to escape- in short in the milieu of the typical large American secondary school- we attempt to teach 'the democratic system'?"
-Royce Van Norman, John Hopkins University 1966Gorham High School, where I graduated in 2006, was like this, but our principle tried to do many things that would encourage more democracy. For example, the school council was eventually changed to include as many students as adults, meaning that decisions could be stalled if the students voted together. Also students participated in the interviewing process of hiring new teachers for the school. We voted on schedule changes and the like. Of course we were far from a real democracy, but the attempt was admirable and I think schools should move in that direction and far beyond.
just a thought
Spencer
Democracy is not as good as a Republic. There have been several democracies fail but not a republic. The United States has started to drift from a republic to a democracy when voter were allowed to petition to have propositions to be put on a ballot to be voted on instead of having the elected Representatives set the laws.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point. Democracy is often kind of glorified, and maybe it's not the best answer. But you'd really have to explore what makes a government good and why government exsists at all. Also what makes a government successful or not is rather subjective as well. As far as no republics failing, I'd have to respectfully disagree. The roman republic, the german republic before the nazi rise to power, and the french republic all fell apart at one point or another. How successful they were can definitely be debated however. Thanks for the insightful comment!
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