Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: I guess that the right question should be „what will come after democracy?" rather than "Is something better than democracy?". Maybe Democracy will not be virtuous but nothing comes after democracy.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: I think, the human race has found a perfect way for self-government and is seeking to develop a most just and fair system. I think, though, that in the name of democracy many arbitrary and unjust acts have been committed too. In my opinion democracy is the most perfect of the most imperfect methods that human race has developed for self-government so far. But as I said before, in the name of democracy many unjust acts have been committed. Sometimes we condemn totalitarian systems like the totalitarian system in Cuba, for example. Cuba has deprived its people of the right to elect their government. The price for the future achievements in the field of education and health care, were numerous battles, eventually won by regime. Democracy had to be sacrificied in order to have fairer society. I come from a country with, it is said, the most ancient democracy in America. I come from Colombia. An in the name of this democracy we live in a state without justice, in constant fear and violence. I think this is dramatic, because we sacrifice much in the name of democracy. Democracy is like synthesis of a government formed by minority and the benefit for all.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea: Real democracy is when everyone has a right to choose one person, when communities and entire nations have a right to choose one person and say: "you are our leader and we want you to represent us". Democracy that dictates, especially dictatorial democracy, democracy that requires money in order to get to power and people without money have no chance to get it, have no chance to attain high position, this kind of democracy is wrong. We are part of an international project, where women work on a global level implementing democracy, sharing their experience, learning from each other like equal to equal. Democracy means giving a chance to communities to draft their own development and to define the word "development" on their own.

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Hi Alex, Andries here. You know, Alex, just to be very simple, I would like to say to you let’s hope so. Let’s hope there is something better that democracy. You know because democracy by all accounts is sort of another level of consensual autocracy. It is better than the systems we’ve had in the past but it’s certainly very very flawed. And as such you know we should be constantly searching for new forms of government. Quite clearly, you know, government itself assumes and works on the premise that people need to be governed because they’re unable to govern themselves. You know that may well be right. Is there something better than democracy? Well I’ll go back to what I said. I certainly hope there is, because democracy leaves a lot to be desired. You know let’s just have a look at democracy, where, lets - anywhere. You know you’ve got two or three parties, four parties, five parties maybe, contending for power. Usually they’re driven and represented around their ability to actually financially be in the game. But really at the end of the day, countries are ruled by two parties contesting one another. With the two parties increasingly that are contesting one another, there is so little difference between the two, that, you know, I think in a way we’ve just accepted that the way in which we’ve constructed our political systems are the only way in which we can govern ourselves. Just one more thought. Before we even come to issues of democracy, we should be considering more effective and efficient ways as to how we should govern ourselves. And that’s a deeper question that we need to ask ourselves. I believe if we learn to govern ourselves better, then it doesn’t really matter who governs your country. Because the force of that internal level of governance transcends the outer level of governance. Because the outer level of governance is just a bureaucratic system that makes sure that the roads are good and that the schools run and stuff like that, but the inner level of government is a far more significant issue that we could be addressing.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Alex, yes there is something better than democracy. You know the world had gone to wars these days to create democracy in the world when they don’t even have democracy in their own homes. We have understood so little of the significance of democracy that it’s not even funny any longer. We all based on partisanry, dividing people from one another. I myself, I was a young politician in the old days. I found myself putting someone down to be looking better than the others. And telling my voters, vote for me, I am better, more trustworthy than the others. Then I realized what the heck I was doing. I was actually putting down someone so I can be like better than the others and get elected. And here I thought I was working on the democracy. True democracy is something which allows me to be able to work for the best one to serve me and my place of home, and my city, and my nation. Those are the ones who will lift up me, lift me up to be a better human being. Because the way we do it now we have to put someone down to be elected and that has nothing to do with democracy. Yes, there are something much better than democracy. Time will come when you and I will be able to elect somebody in absolute silence. When you and I will look around and see who is best to serve me. And he becomes the servant of me to make sure that everything according to what needs I have will be done. Not what they want to do in the name of what I need. You and I we look at what we want rather than look at what we need. Until the day when we complete our needs what we want will never come. Yes, there is something much better than democracy. I look forward to that day and I need your help for that. So I trust you will be able to help me. Thank you.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: Well, if we accept the existing definition of democracy, then the answer is absolutely yes, because what today is called democracy is undemocratic. What today is called democracy really is plutocracy, the control of those who have money, the control by those who have wealth, and through that wealth, people who dominate and control the basic institutions of power, corporate institutions that offset political institutions. And so really democracy, as it’s called today is not in any way the high achievement of the possibility of organizing the society in a way that is participatory, that is humane, that is just. In fact, democracy goes hand and hand with the whole economic system and the political system that denies meaningful participation for the vast majority of the world’s people, even those who live under democracies. So, there is a better alternative, a truly democratic alternative, in which people rule, collectively make the decisions, govern their own lives, and participate in all of the spheres of economic life, including economic spheres. But, today, they have no saying, and historically that vision has been called socialism. I think it’s important to specify that one means socialism from below not from above, not the dictatorial brutal distortion of socialism that we saw in the 20th century with the rise of Stalinism and Maoism, but genuine democratic participatory socialism and socialism from below. And that would be far better to the democracy that we have today, and it’s something that we can achieve, it’s something that we can bring about. And that’s something that we urgently need to bring about.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala: If you practice and preach democracy as it is defined then I feel that there is nothing better than democracy.

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Yes, I guess people have come to believe that democracy, the Western liberal concept of democracy, means you go and vote and U.S., for example, becomes the champion, the leader of democracy. The democracy I believe in and I feel is better than the Western liberal concept of democracy is people’s democracy. It’s a food democracy where no one goes hungry, where people and the farmers have the right to choose what they grow, how they grow it, and that everyone gets to eat it. What I believe in is citizens’ democracy, and then democracy is not just about voting and hope that everyone got to vote which often does not happen in the United States or hope that our votes were actually counted which again in the United States has not happened though it is a champion of democracy. But it is really about citizens’ democracy, which starts not just from the day of voting and seizing the power as a voter, but it actually continues the day after the voting is over, after the election results are out. The citizens are ensuring that the governments they have elected are accountable to them, that they hold them responsible for the decisions they make. So it is not that despite millions of people marching, Bush administration can go to war in Iraq, that despite millions marching in Australia, John Howard’s government can support the war in Iraq, or in England, another mother of monarchy where they think that it’s okay for them to basically defy the will of millions of people who are on the streets of London and elsewhere in England and say, “Okay, we are still going to war.” So, yeah, I would say that is better than this Western liberal concept of democracy that has been thrust upon the rest of the world by the United States and other Western nations; and that is real democracy, people’s democracy, citizens’ democracy, food democracy that I actually believe in.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: I like this question very much, because in one sense there is nothing better than true democracy. And the question is asking, to my mind is, what is real democracy? And again, the pattern of my other answers, keep going back to a fundamental difference in the cultural technology of consciousness in which we are speaking. If we are in an ego-based way of thinking and being in a culture and trying to practice democracy from an egocentric or ego-mental mindset, that’s not true democracy as I understand it and that’s not true power of the people and power to the people. By contrast, a culture based upon integral whole consciousness, a consciousness of our interconnectivity, a consciousness that brings us into the profound space in which we realize our deepest individuality and diversity and yet our common ground, is a different and higher form of democracy. So if we use the word egocracy, ego-democracy and egocracy, that is not the place in which there was genuine dialogue amongst the people, direct connection in the civic space. And in fact, we might say that to the extent that our culture is dominated by egocentric patterns, we do not have a true democracy. Because the civic space in which we are in an ego-culture is profoundly divided across our world views and perspectives. And there is no real true dialogue, but egologue and monologue and clash of cultural perspectives and world views within the culture and within the broken civic space. So that the people are not together in any deep sense where we can find our common ground in diversity. And there really is no really “we the people.” And democracy, true democracy is the power of the people, government by the people, for the people. And if we are not a people, in that deep sense of interconnectivity and healthy dialogue, then we're broken and fragmented as people and therefore, governments can and other regimes can take over the power and usurp the power, when the people are not watching and are not together. So, what is better than ego-democracy is true holistic democracy, a democracy of awakened citizens, sharing civic space and deep dialogue and deep interconnectivity, where we realize our true individuality and diversity and common ground. E Pluribus Unum, as we have inscribed in our penny in the United States: “Out of the many, one." So we cannot find that unity and diversity in an ego-based culture. So what is better than democracy, the ego-based democracy, is a democracy based on a culture of true dialogue, global citizenship, global consciousness, in which you can have and celebrate true diversity in a common ground.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: Democracy as a political process is very important because it theoretically gives people their voice to be able to participate openly through a transparent process that is supposed to empower them. But the political process will only be as good as the people's responsibility to actually utilize it and to be engaged in it. So we have democratic governments where people are allowed to cast their votes, to have their opinions and their choices made known but often do not exercise their right to vote. So there has been growing apathy among the people to be able to exercise their political voice and their political participation as citizens. So we must know that any political process is only going to be good as the people who are engaged in it and with it and see it as their responsibility to be able to support it in ways that will continuously allow the constituents to be engaged and heard and to never divest themselves of their responsibility or abdicate their responsibility to be active participants. So the, what is ultimately democratic processes, political processes, must speak to the empowerment of the people and their continuous ability to never give up and to see that their opportunities are inherently created by themselves.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: Something better than democracy? True democracy, if we were that the core of what a true democracy is we can see that it is just routed and good sound principles and has good intentions. Today’s democracy, modern democracy is very different than true, appropriate -- I say appropriate but true democracy. And what happens is sometimes we latch on to an idea and then we are attached to that idea. We limit the growth by holding on too tight. We’ve change what democracy is today by modifying it around our own interest, our own political interest, the corporate interest. And so democracy today is very different than its core concepts. Now again, as a people, we are part of evolutionary cycle and that the political realm is also evolutionary cycle that can take on new forms and we you need to continue to question the authority of democracy, and question the modalities of politics. And experiment and trying new things, see what works, readjust the design to best fit the times, to best fit the people. We’re preaching democracy and saying all this is in democracy, we want to bring democracy to this country or that country and now really bringing true democracy. Where are we bringing hypocrisy? Kleptocracy? Stealing, the thievery of people and their culture? I don’t know if there is something better. I would really hope so. I think there is something better than democracy especially the democracy that we have today. True democracy is a good concept and maybe we should go back to its core. Explore the core concepts of true democracy and put back in place some of the things that worked that we’re working and things that aren’t working, we should change. -- True democracy, genuine democracy. -- So, Donato is talking about genuine democracy, I was saying true democracy but genuine democracy that’s the one, genuine, the true one.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: Yes. Some people would insist that it theocracy. But theocracy by its definition exclude all other ways of social reality, unless we decided to create a religiously pluralistic way of life, where equality, liberty, and justice are the same for all. Other people would argue that's socialism. But the greatest challenge today for socialism is how can we promote economical growth independent from personal, individualistic greed, to a more communal motivation of producing the goods, and that there's a fair distribution of the benefits that come from these goods. I guess that my personal conclusion is that the only system that is greater than democracy is a democracy in which its people is greater than the system itself. Is greater - the people is greater than the system itself.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: Plato thought so. Plato thought that rather than electing politicians to lead us we should train people much like we train a doctor. We wouldn’t hold an election to pick a doctor. And people could learn to be wise rulers. And certainly history has no shortage of examples of bad and incompetent leadership. So should we do this? Should we stress competence over politics and management skills over ideology? Things like the initiative systems that we have in some states in the United States go to this point because rather than be elected officials making the laws we submit more things to a direct vote of the people. And that’s to go back from a representative democracy which is what we have because the number of people now to more of a direct democracy. But I think that democracy is clearly of value and one should participate overall but it’s not the only value. And if we can find a system which emphasizes more competence as opposed to the media show and celebrities becoming the people with the power, and people who are good at manipulating the power becoming the ones with the power and perhaps there is something after democracy as we know it.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: (Smiling)... We shouldn’t need a better solution then the democratic one, weren’t democracy as idea and in the praxis been 100 of time devaluated. Let us only remember how many countries of very suspicious democracy carry this word in there own name. Of course some socially justified society would be even more suitable. However I don’t wish to use the word socialism here, which is also being drawn in the mud by socialist tyrants and dictators. Thus I believe we should stick to the democracy and democratize it as much as possible.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: So, that’s my mind map on this section in terms of understanding power. So, is there something better than democracy? Yeah, probably, real democracy. I don’t think we’ve ever had democracy. Democritus, actually, who coined the idea and created the first “democratic society” in Greece. It was basically for men and particularly men of influence and power. So in that respect, nothing has much changed in a way. So yeah, we need real democracy and that means updating it with new values. Basically, the real question I think is, how do we get to live together, really live together. And really putting in real programs around health, what it really means to be healthy; promoting health and housing, hygiene; looking at real human values and practical programs. I mean that’s really how we create real democracy. Spending our money on what’s really important. So, I would say the current form of democracy really has been hijacked by people corrupted by power and influence and privilege. I hope and trust that that is coming to an end. In a way, world consciousness is rising and it’s rising to expose a lot of the imbalances of power. I mean ultimately power means the ability to act. It doesn’t even say you have to use it, but it’s an ability. It’s that sense of power. Eudemonia, I think it’s called – Eudemonia – a Greek word that means the greatest good of human life. Aristotle held that it consisted basically in exercising the true virtues for their own sake. You know, these are the inner virtues. In other words, it’s enough to be and promote goodness in your life. So, something better than democracy? Yeah, the real thing – the real thing. We have fake democracy right now; fake democracy. I think in many ways our democracy is being expressed right now it’s like the theater of the absurd. It’s more of an expression of insanity than it is of anything else, but we’re trying our best. Yeah, the real thing.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

Catherine David: I think the question is not to know if there is something better, I think the question is to be a little bit vigilant concerning what one offers us under the name of democracy. Democracy is not a brand, it is not a trade mark, is cannot be distributed like Gucci and Prada and the other brands but unfortunately reality works a little bit like this. In how many countries did we spread, in the worst moments of the recent years, crime and chaos under the name of democracy? So I think that by democracy one cannot understand some arrangements that suit to a certain number of powers and are imposed on this or that country, by force if necessary. Democracy is a process, it is always in the making, there is always something to do, something to improve, it cannot go without a dissent whereas our societies practice more and more the religion of consensus. Thus, for me, it is very important that democracy cannot be established without dissent, without disharmony, even without violence, on condition that the violence remains a verbal or symbolic violence and not a real one. From then on, we can probably begin to talk but it seems as if…, what we are currently seeing today, that means an imposition of more and more force, of violence, of injustice under the name of the integral panacea or the absolute miracle which is called the American version of democracy, an irakisation of the world. This is completely unacceptable.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 1:05:00 PM cite

China Keitetsi: There isn't and there will never be anything better than democracy, because democracy makes you live with no fear. Democracy makes you decide what you want to do with your life, what you want to do for others. Democracy makes you travel without limit, free movement. Democracy is our mother. Democracy is our father. And I think we should try very hard to pass it on to everybody because like freedom needs everybody. I think democracy needs everybody, too because those who died before they experience the beauty of democracy is a sad story for them. I think we should work hard and encourage every leader to use democracy to rule his people, to rule his country, because with democracy he will rule with truth, with democracy he will rule on fairness and with democracy no leader will use so much energy trying to lie to his people. No leader will have to use so much energy in propaganda, using propaganda. And every leader after democracy, they will rest in their home country and will always be loved and respected because imagine those dictators who rule with no democracy. At the end of their rule, they die in exile. At the end of their rule, they are hated. At the end of their rule, their children suffer. At the end of their rule so many friends of theirs suffer because of them. But if they had ruled with democracy, they would enjoy so much and they will leave a legacy whereby my child or someone's child would envy and like to be like that leader. I have a big respect of those who rule with democracy. Be a leader, don't be a ruler. And with democracy, you'll be a leader.

by China Keitetsi