this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
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FTFY.
Some countries have their people elect their government
Right, right... like the US just did?
How's that vote on healthcare coming along?
I was thinking more European countries, since the discussion was, you know, foreign countries hosting US military bases
So-called "liberal democracy" works pretty much the exact same way it does in Europe (or anywhere else) as it does in the US.
Ie, it's 95% capitalism and 5% fake democracy substitute (the ratios vary slightly but never by much). And, like "liberal democracy" everywhere, the 5% fake democracy substitute will be rapidly replaced with 5% very not-fake fascism if you threaten the 95% capitalism part in any way whatsoever.
Lol no. Much of Europe ranks much higher in all sort of democracy, press freedom etc indexes. Not all liberal democracies are created equal.
I'm guessing you're having a real hard time understanding that there is absolutely NOTHING democratic about so-called "liberal democracy," eh?
Why is that? Is the new information clashing with your programming?
I mean I've voted for a candidates in municipal, health care area, parliamentary and European Parliament elections. Hell, even in church elections. I've had friends as candidates, seen stuff get through from a single person's suggestion through to reality through what I'd call democratic means and action, I've worked with different campaigns and parties and have seen change happen through that.
If that doesn't count as democratic then not sure what you consider democratic tbh because that's the stuff I think of when I think of democracy.
It just seems to clash with the common definition of the word, is all. If democracy isn't that sort of stuff then I wonder what it is and where you might find it, if anywhere.
They do. However, I'm sure you can imagine an elected government acting in a way that the majority disagrees with. We're about to see it in the US (actually, we have for years if not decades). This is not just a US phenomenon, there's actual research showing that in liberal democracies, there's very little correlation between what the general public wants, and the policies instated by their elected officials. There is a strong correlation with the interests of the owning class though.
Here's a study for American politics: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B
There's a Danish study as well. I'm having terrible trouble finding it though. It's an important addition because the democrats not representing the interests of the working class could in theory be a consequence of the US's two party system. The same result holding in multi-party Denmark shows that this is not the case.
At any rate, the point is that just because these countries are liberal democracies doesn't mean their population wants a US military presence.
No it doesn't automatically mean people want it, but add in stuff like living next to Russia and suddenly it's very easy to understand why some actually want it.
to be fair, most of these countries allow usa bases because of the countries that explicitly dont have usa bases. see map.
they use expensive infrastructure and most countries would rather fund their own bases.