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Politics / Re: Democracy vs. Constitutionalism in the U.S.
« on: March 29, 2011, 01:23:49 pm »My premise is that they are in some way fundamentally opposed. Obviously, the U.S. government incorporates both ideas.
At its core, the idea of democracy is that the government does what the people tell it to do. The people, at least a majority of people, are the ultimate power. A constitution usurps this power and replaces it with itself. In the United States, if a majority of people want to do something that goes against the Constitution, that majority of people is stuck following the rules that a bunch of dead guys made up 220 years ago. We could amend the Constitution, but we'd have to follow their rules in order to do so (and it's hard!). Why should we listen to those dead guys? Why should their thoughts have any power over us? Isn't that idea fundamentally undemocratic? Would you want to live in a country where a bunch of dead guys didn't have that power?*
I thought this might be a nice, non-partisan discussion point.
If you're not from the U.S., or just know something about Constitutional democracies elsewhere, feel free to chime in. I just don't know enough about them to feel comfortable making assertions about the way other countries work.
*I am not in any way claiming any of the above ideas as original to me. They are not.
You are waaaaaay wrong of what democracy is mate...
