Quote Originally Posted by LittleGrizzly View Post
If there was a way to get proven good governors who aren't corrupt and have the entire populations interest at heart rather than the just an elites, then a dictatorship would probably be great....
If you could find me a man-God, a man with perfect ideas, only noble intentions, and incorruptible, I would still prefer democracy over his rule.


As John Stuart Mill once wrote (paraphrasing him here beyond recognition probably): a man's own decisions are the best. Not because they have the best possible outcome for him, but because they are his own.

It belongs to being a free citizen, to the human experience even, to make your own life. To make mistakes, bad decisions, good decisions, heartfelt decisions. What matters is that you make your own life.

Democracy in this respect then, is not the outcome of careful delibiration over what is the best form of government. It stems from a philosophical view of man. That of liberty, of man as a free individual. The decisions of a smart man are not worth more than the decisions of a dumb one. No more than the tears and joy of the smart man are worth more.



(Consequently, one can wonder if democracy isn't more suited to Western than to East Asian philosophy. To a large extent, developed East Asian countries, while not autocratic, are not entirely democratic in a Western sense. Possibly their communal values prefer more communal systems of government. Certainly, they function very well.)