Quote Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost
You wrote:



That implies that free speech and respect for human rights are not dependent on democracy - whereas it was democracy and the striving towards it that enabled those concepts to exist beyond the theoretical.

Since almost all the alternative forms of government to democracy tend towards dictatorship of one flavour or another, and dictatorships tend by their very nature to remove liberties, I wanted to know - since you appear to find them equivalent nurseries for human rights - exactly which dictatorships have fostered these rights.
A-a, you missed this:

Quote Originally Posted by me
Democracy is so flawed it's not even funny. It's better than any of the others tried though, so I'm waiting for a brand new one. No idea what that may be though, I'm no visionary.
Democracies has tortured, oppressed and generally been idiots. In a much smaller degree than dictators, but still way too many times to be considered "the perfect thing". And a lot of the cases are with full popular support too.