Democracy

Democracy has been promoted by so many proponents of it that it is almost impossible to criticize democracy in front of people without triggering a flamewar instead of a fruitful discussion. In fact democracy has been popularized to the point that those speaking about it often have no idea what is being represented by the term.

The term democracy comes from the Greek word demokratia, which is the combination of the term demos (people) and kratos (power). Essentially, the aim of any democratic system would be to grant the power back to the people.

In my humble opinion there is really not a need to talk about the benefits of a democratic society - though, to be honest, most of the quoted benefits of the democratic society are actually the prerequisite of a democratic society, not an effect of it (and these includes freedom of speech, freedom of political expression, freedom of press, etc.)

One major problem of democracy is that of a mob rule. The treatment by Plato on this subject is at least interesting (if not practical enough) to read. Mob rule refers to the situation in which the majority utilizes its power via democracy to intimidate, or even harm minority groups. Another situation that could also be referred to mob rule is when the majority in the society elects (or intimidates the government) for a certain action to be passed, when the action itself may not be for the better in the long run.

Look at the $6,000 scheme by the Government of Hong Kong last year.

In my opinion, the government has been doing a disservice to the society by changing its decision from investing six grands into people's MPF account to dispensing cash. The problem is that many of us are not being protected adequately by our retirement scheme and the approval of such decision is only making the government more liable in terms of social security spending because these people who do not save it up and spend the money right away are likely to be the people who would rely on the social security policy for their "retirement plan" in the long run.