>
>
> Ah. Well, there *are* those of us who think that elections are important
> because they are a less-than-completely-ineffective mechanism for producing
> governments that derive their just powers from the consent of the
> governed...
No. Governments derive their powers from a near monopoly on the use of force. Today, in all so-called democracies, political parties are the same. Political parties are, and arguably always have been, different wings of the same state. There has never been a social contract as envisaged by Locke, Hobbes, Rawls or Gauthier. The capitalist state rules without the consent of the governed in the interests of uniting the capitalist class as a whole in the long run against the myopia of individual capitalists acting out of competition in short term self-interest.
Sam Pawlett