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Old 17.11.2009, 11:32
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amogles amogles is offline
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Re: Democracy taken too far?

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I have always thought the Swiss system of uber-democracy is a good thing, but every now and then I am thinking that there *surely* are times when this is infringing on the rights or freedom of others.
Show me any political system that doesn't infringe upon the rights of others. The closest you can get to that is to go and live by yourself on a desert island.

The basis of the Swiss democratic system is that no idea or topic cannot be too absurd to be voted on. So they can vote on abolishing the army or banning minarets or legalising drugs or abolishing all tram fares. However, to be accepted and become law, such proposals require the majority of valid votes to say yes. The basic assumption at the heart of such a democracy is that although there may be mavericks and fools and provocateurs and people who will blurt any nonsense for five minutes of fame, and sadly the tabloids will stop at nothing to distort and spread lies, the majority of voters do think before going to the polls and can distinguish the reasonable from the unreasonable.

As for the proposal at hand, I really don't see what rights are being infringed upon? The right to make a profit? There are other ways of making profits.
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