Democracy in seven words for Xmas 2005

If you were asked to give a definition of democracy in seven words, could you do it? I've always believed the best way to do something is to keep it simple. It applies even more so in engineering if you want reliability. You might ask why I draw the analogy with engineering. Well engineering is the science for the control and use of power to achieve certain outcomes like building roads and machines. Democracy is a mechanism for delivering outcomes. These outcomes are assumptions that society should be a certain way. For me society should be fair and just. So democracy is a machine for delivering those outcomes.

Let's return to my question of a seven word definition of democracy. Have you got it? My definition of democracy goes like this... Majority rule, minority protection, shared economic benefits. It's so simple but it's the foundation for further discussion. Each part is absolutely necessary for this simple definition to work. In this formula everything is a balancing act between different groups that make up a society. On the one hand there is the powerful and on the other the powerless, and often the powerless need to be protected from the powerful.

How are majorities made up and what governs their sense of right and wrong? Can it all be achieved by balancing power and sharing economic benefits, and who is the arbiter of such things? It was Plato who said that without absolutes we cannot move and so it is with democracy. Let's leave that there for now, perhaps you have some thoughts on this.

Seasons Greetings
Pepp