Totalitarian democracy

[John Scott]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarian_democracy

Hmm. Such an American sounding concept.

[ewomack]

Totalitarian democracy is a term made famous by Israeli historian J. L. Talmon to refer to a system of government in which lawfully elected representatives maintain the integrity of a nation state whose citizens, while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government.

This really does sound like the American system from a citizen's point of view. "Totalitarian" seems strong, though, since US citizens (those that behave, at least) remain very free from state violence, but nonetheless are indoctrinated into a system that ultimately supports the ruling class. So maybe "totalitarian" isn't so far off... but many of us in the middle class lead relatively peaceful lives.

I've also heard the US referred to as a polyarchy. Here's the first line from wiki:

In modern political science, the term Polyarchy (Greek: poly many, arkhe rule)[1] was introduced by Robert A. Dahl, now emeritus professor at Yale University, to describe a form of government in which power is vested in three or more persons. This form of government was first implemented in the United States and was gradually adopted by many other countries.

[m42]

Sounds like an oxymoron.

[skyraider]

If you elect a bunch of people into office, they try to stay in office. In the USA at the moment, most of them do this by catering to the perceived will of the majority. That's one way in which true democracy is mob rule. To avoid mob rule, the United States was founded as a republic, with democratic representation and some separation between the people and the levers of power.