----- Original Message -----
From: Durant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Even the best of the present nominal democracy won't work
>if the power is not in fact in the hand of those elected by dubious
>means. Which doesn't mean that democracy cannot work,
It's an empirical fact that democracy is on the way out. In 1981, 35% of
the world's population lived under "free" political systems, by 1996 the
number fallen to 19%. [1]
Why? Even if democracy weren't run by the rich, it STILL can't "solve"
problems because it's "process" politics instead of "systems" politics.
"As the name implies, process politics emphasizes the adequacy and fairness
of the rules governing the process of politics. If the process is fair,
then, as in a trial conducted according to due process, the outcome is
assumed to be just -- or at least the best the system can achieve. By
contrast, systems politics is concerned primarily with desired outcomes;
means are subordinated to predetermined ends." [2]
But in a world of Limits to Growth, a civilization either "solves" its
problems or the day must come when it "collapses":
"Energy has always been the basis of cultural complexity and it always will
be. . the past clarifies potential paths to the future. One often-discussed
path is cultural and economic simplicity and lower energy costs. This could
come about through the "crash" that many fear - a genuine collapse over a
period of one or two generations, with much violence, starvation, and loss
of population. The alternative is the "soft landing" that many people hope
for - a voluntary change to solar energy and green fuels, energy-conserving
technologies, and less overall consumption. This is a utopian alternative
that, as suggested above, will come about only if severe, prolonged hardship
in industrial nations makes it attractive, and if economic growth and
consumerism can be removed from the realm of ideology." [3]
We are now feeling Limits to Growth, and democracies are collapsing into
authoritarian systems. This then is the political problem imposed on
democracies by immutable biophysical laws: solve or collapse.
Jay
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[1] p. 43, DARWINISM, DOMINANCE, AND DEMOCRACY: The Biological Bases of
Authoritarianism, by Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson; Review at
http://info.greenwood.com/books/0275958/0275958175.html
[2] p. 242, ECOLOGY AND THE POLITICS OF SCARCITY REVISITED; Ophuls, 1992.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716723131
[3] COMPLEXITY, PROBLEM SOLVING, AND SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES, by Joseph A.
Tainter, 1996; http://dieoff.com/page134.htm
