Democracy (Was Re: [lbo-talk] DeLong on Hayek)

[andie nachgeborenen]

It's an obsolete way of talking. The framers would
have seen it that way. Democracy (aka mob rule) was
anethema to them. This was not an American Thing. It
was pretty much educated opinion from the Renaissance
on, at least in Europe, up through, say the 1880s. The
positive associations with the term Democracy are
products of the battles of the 19th century, and
really only enter popular usage at the end of the
century. When Marx says in the Manifesto that the
first task of the proletariat is to win the battle of
democracy, he is saying something that in context was
much more radical than it sounds now. Now, it just
sounds like, We all think democracy is great, but
contrary to popular belief, it cannot be fully
realized under capitalism. Marx, however, took the
most extrement, radical, loony-left position of his
day -- democracy! a term that rank in liberal ears
like communism dis a generation ago -- and said, It's
Only a  First Step! Wild eyed fella, that Chuckie
Marx. jks

--- Grant Lee <grantlee at iinet.net.au> wrote:
> > > they were by and large precisely the sort of
> pedant who insists on
> > > reminding you at least once a week that the US
> is *not* a democracy,
> > > but a democratic republic.
> 
> It seems to me that US right wingers are the only
> people to have placed
> "democracy" and "republic" on the same conceptual
> continuum. Nowhere else in
> the world would a "democratic republic" be seen as a
> compromise or a
> paradox.
> 
> ___________________________________
>
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