From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 23:26:33 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Govt & cyberspace
Message-ID: <199702050726.XAA18108@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Declan McCullagh wrote:
> Steve writes:
> >Democracy is not without its significant shortcomings. If you doubt this
> >read Tocquevelle.

> Or Hayek. Democracy, after all, is majoritarian rule. Living under a
> homogenous majority, with its whims and desires as law, would be more
> oppressive than living under a benign dictatorship.

I wish for once and for all someone would delineate this "democracy"
thing from a true, distributed democracy, where every individual is
required to participate equally, and no narrow interests can co-opt
the vote the way they do in the kind of "democracy" Declan mentions.

Wouldn't it be better when people mention a one-word political
philosophy such as democracy, that they make the definition
more precise by using two or three words instead?