Can we function with no polititcians?

[Montmorency]

I wouldn't equate voting with doing your civic duty either.

Well, neither would ACIN.

There is more to being a citizen than just voting every few years.

See?

And 90% of people are not willing to do more than that. I'm not.

Once, US voter participation hovered around the 80% mark, today it hovers around 50%. Was the free silver debate really any more important than the issues of today? Or did the culture instill civil duty within everyone better?

Oh...

[a completely inoffensive name]

I don't see the contradiction in what I said. Voting is part of your civic duty, but as I said there is a lot more to it than that.

I am simply using voter participation as a signal that perhaps civic duty in general is not as strong as it once was.

Please, please don't misinterpret me about this. I don't want you guys to think I am dumb. :((((

If there were charts on average volunteer rates for community events, religious activities etc....These might be other sources of data to which determine how civic virtue in America has changed.

EDIT: Also, the questions were hypothetical, not my official stance. I wanted someone to argue why free silver was more important to the US than abortion ever will.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Oh no. I just meant that I wouldn't take greater voter participation to mean greater civic duty. I am very interested in why the rates were higher...but it may just have been that political machines were more powerful and less scrupulous, or some other explanation...

[Beskar]

I am surprised no Belgians have replied to this topic. They have been functioning without "politicians" for a good while. Solely ran by the civil service doing their duties whilst politicians are never forming any sort of stable coalition.

[Vladimir]

I am surprised no Belgians have replied to this topic. They have been functioning without "politicians" for a good while. Solely ran by the civil service doing their duties whilst politicians are never forming any sort of stable coalition.

Isn't that similar to saying Washington DC functions without politicians?

[InsaneApache]

Isn't that similar to saying Washington DC functions without politicians?

Not really. It would be like Washington DC with no government.

[Vladimir]

DC doesn't really have a government. Congress has a lot of control of governance.

Everyone has politicians, even the military. Once someone becomes a general they cease being a soldier and become politicians out of necessity.

[Subotan]

Once, US voter participation hovered around the 80% mark, today it hovers around 50%.

Turnout has dropped in all Western democracies. Nobody knows why.

[InsaneApache]

Turnout has dropped in all Western democracies. Nobody knows why.

Because the ones who stand for election do not reflect the attitudes of the electorate.

[Visor]

Compulsory voting seems to get numbers up.

[gaelic cowboy]

Turnout has dropped in all Western democracies. Nobody knows why.

People are cynical of the motives behind any run for political office even a first timer independent.

I bet people feel like there getting on without politicians because many of the services they use feel like there not provided by government, why bother voting "they never do nothing for me" as he sits in a privately paid for hospital bed in a public paid for hospital.

Much of the stuff we have can only function when somehow regulated by politicians (either badly or well) were just good at ignoring where our privately consumed services come from.

[CountArach]

Turnout has dropped in all Western democracies. Nobody knows why.

I'm guessing that a lot of it has to do with the nature of the media. We are told day-in and day-out that we are governed by crooks and that the opposition parties are no better. So that is the point in voting? Further, the entire world is presented as a cold, depressing place with bad things occurring all over the world, so what is the point in doing anything about it if our human nature is just going to make us do it again? Far easier to sit at home on the lounge.

But yes... compulsory voting is something I truly like about our democracy.

[gaelic cowboy]

There is a pub I know with a mirror that has a bullet hole from the tans in it above the bar just to set the scene, mainly popular with older farming bachelors they wear long black overcoats and flat tweed caps smoke sweet afton or players navy cut.(it's not a place you hunt for chicks in)

These men cried like babies the day Dev died when it was announced on the news, the younger more cynical student types were more annoyed he had died on the weekend so they wouldnt get a day off college.(course these student types were all pretty much flirting with maoism in college anyway)



It does not take long for people to forget why they want or need the vote.

[rory_20_uk]

Link

Yes, we can function with no politicians... but the method to find their replacements is tough. Looks like Italy has managed just that. The main reason for the whoe democracy show is so the polis feels at some level that they are responsible - or at the very least, tried to vote for the other guy.