The world’s largest democracy is collapsing before our eyes
Narendra Modi’s war on India’s democracy, explained.
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It's as if western style liberal democracy is an inherently unstable political system.
You mean to say that the system that led to the Iraq war, the 2007-9 housing crisis, the unpreparedness for a predictable pandemic, and myriad other events of this kind – with no option for the 'represented' publics to prevent said events – is unstable? You might just be on to something.
In unrelated news, the Bank of England has raised interest rates with the stated intention of making homeowners poorer. About 20% poorer, I'm told. The board of the bank is unelected and the electorate have zero control over its decisions. The (unelected) Prime Minister appears to disagree with the decision but also has zero control over the board's decisions.
The bank hopes that by making people poorer, inflation will come down – after two years – and workers will become so desperate that they are too scared to go on strike for a pay rise! This is all public knowledge because several interested parties said the quiet part out loud.
Don't worry, though, Britain is a liberal democracy so the Brits can vote for different representatives in a year's time. Well, those who survive will be able to vote. And nobody will be able to vote for the Bank of England board. But it's still a democracy.
The board of the bank is unelected and the electorate have zero control over its decisions. The (unelected) Prime Minister appears to disagree with the decision but also has zero control over the board’s decisions.
This is more feature than bug in a central bank. Let's say the US president had direct control over fiscal policy. The president says print money and drop the interest rate, the central bank says how much. It gets really tempting when reelection comes around to juice the economy. The negative consequences - inflation - take enough time to do their damage that people will already be going to the polls before they get hit.
The way the Bank of England gets its board does seem less than ideal, but not terrible as these things go. It's kind of a run of the mill technocratic structure.
I'll upvote this as it's fair point, but my point was that liberal democracies cannot claim to be democratic if there is no real democratic oversight over such significant political decisions. The fact that this can be dismissed as part of a technocracy illustrates the point well, I think. So many people will lose their homes and hundreds of thousands/millions will see a dip in their living standards and no amount of the 'democracy' on offer (periodic voting) can change that. It makes a mockery of the concept and, as you say, it's a feature not a bug of liberal democracy. We're in full agreement about that!
As compared to?
Compared to China, Cuba, and Vietnam.
I'll take "unstable" over "authoritarian" thanks.
Adorable that you think west isn't authoritarian. Every government is fundamentally authoritarian because the government has the monopoly on violence, that's where its authority comes from. And when people in western countries don't behave the governments unleash their security forces on them as they did during George Floyd protests in US and they're doing in France right now.
China does keep it's slaves in line more... and their recent pushes for global imperial authority have had a lot of success.
It's always amazing to see the wild fantasies westies believe about other countries.
No, I mean it, they really have taken the models of the British Empire and the American Empires and expanded them in a way neither at their heights could ever justify nor imagine. Surveillance system sales to authoritarian governments? Selling surveillance in other countries?! Like the CIA look like idiots spending money to get surveillance in other countries on that one. Plus they get to support the dictators keeping the peasants sending raw resources to China!
Purposely loaning money to countries with bad credit histories for leverage to get them to build ports for the Chinese empire's trade network?! Britten spent so much time and money fighting wars, and colonizing just to be our shined on that.
And let's not even get to started on the levels of control business have over workers there. The US robber barons use the State here looks like child's play to the anti-union, anti-solidarity work done by the CCP. A giant union ran by the largest capitalist in the country? With authorities able to crack down on grassroots organizing on the opposite side, and the ability to send slaves from regions in need of "reeducation" all around the country. Makes the US look practically socialist on some fronts (we aren't and have a good way to go).
Literally every word of that is a falsehood.
They aren't loaning out money to have ports built? They don't have a state run union? Their government isn't filled with some of their richest? They don't have a program reducate certain peoples that includes shipping them accross the country? Like come on, some of these are just established public facts that even the CCP doesn't deny.
They aren’t loaning out money to have ports built?
The myth of Chinese debt trap has been thoroughly debunked, just a few examples
Their government isn’t filled with some of their richest?
It's demonstrably not. The government is predominantly filled with working class people
They don’t have a program reducate certain peoples that includes shipping them accross the country?
A weird framing for programs to provide people with jobs and education.
Like come on, some of these are just established public facts that even the CCP doesn’t deny.
As I said, every single claim you made is disinformation. Also, no idea what CCP is. It's called the Communist Party of China, CPC. The fact that you can't even get that straight says volumes.
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http://www.chinatoday.com/org/cpc/
https://news.cgtn.com/event/2021/who-runs-the-cpc/index.html
https://news.cgtn.com/event/2019/whorunschina/index.html
Do you think those are sources? Pointing at the National Congress or the Central Committee as if those actually held any power is ludicrous.
Yes, these are actual sources. This whole narrative that official Chinese sources are somehow unreliable isn't actually based on anything other than pure chauvinism. This is no different from linking about a US government site talking about US government. And it's the height of absurdity to claim that National Congress or the Central Committee don't hold any power. I love how you just make things up and state them confidently as a form of argument.