The fundamental purpose of democratic government is to handle the implementation of the policies that the population wants.
That’s probably a fairly common view, and I don’t quite disagree, but it seems somewhat naive or in the whole “governments and democratic institutions act in the public interest” camp of poli-sci.
While perhaps a bit difficult to fully separate from the suggested purpose, I do see democracy very much as a way of managing factional conflict view some more peaceful social mechanism that just brute force, winners get their way. Pure democracy might be similar but I think Constitutional type democracies do try to provide some base protection for the “loosing” side(s) while still promoting discussion and compromise over simple force.
Not sure how much that might shift the views and interpretations in this discussion but seems that if we start from a potentially partial or incorrect premise we’ll not find the conclusions that fruitful or insightful.
That’s probably a fairly common view, and I don’t quite disagree, but it seems somewhat naive or in the whole “governments and democratic institutions act in the public interest” camp of poli-sci.
While perhaps a bit difficult to fully separate from the suggested purpose, I do see democracy very much as a way of managing factional conflict view some more peaceful social mechanism that just brute force, winners get their way. Pure democracy might be similar but I think Constitutional type democracies do try to provide some base protection for the “loosing” side(s) while still promoting discussion and compromise over simple force.
Not sure how much that might shift the views and interpretations in this discussion but seems that if we start from a potentially partial or incorrect premise we’ll not find the conclusions that fruitful or insightful.