17/03/2005 12:11:06 pm
Socialists and Democracy. Yesterday, I spent an hour and a half being interviewed by a magazine about education policy together with the head of the Social Democrat Party think-tank, Anne-Marie Lindgren. Since it is a very strong view of mine that everyone should have good chances in life no matter where they come from, I also want the forces of development to be in place in education policy. That is, a great variety of suppliers in free competition instead of a public monopoly. I made a comparison between the centrally planned economy that failed totally and the free market which now delivers prosperity to hundreds of millions of people. Anne-Marie Lindgren got very upset and talked about the vast difference between Socialist dictatorship and big government introduced in a "democratic" way. Now, having a Master?s Degree in Politican Science, I have studied democracy theory somewhat. The Socialist kind of democracy is about almost unlimited majority rule. 51 % can do what they wish with the 49 %. Normally, you get a big government and you get a society where a small majority live off a large minority by forcing very high taxes from them. It has nothing to do with freedom or human rights - but of course they can call it democracy. I would like to call it collectivism. There are other kinds of democracy more worthy of the name. The opposite kind takes individual rights into account by protecting them in a Constitution, for example. If you add a system of checks and balances between institutions, you limit the power of a majority over the individual even more. Those societies have more freedom and protect human rights. And it is democracy. Don?t be fooled by Socialists using a popular word to defend their big government and unlimited majority rule!