The decline of democracy

[daniel_gudman]

So your citation is "second-hand anecdotes about memorable people that prove the person telling the anecdote had no responsibility to do anything better because it's 100% the other person's fault."

I'm not saying they're WRONG, or even untrue: I'm saying I'm not inclined to believe it's statistically representative enough for me to change my opinions at a "social policy" level.

 

[rukia8492]

daniel, from someone who has also dealt with prisoners. i can tell you that threadweaver is right.

 

[PCHeintz72]

To back them up (Treadweaver and Rukia)... a simple search found a few interesting articles... here is one link:

The Effectiveness of Prison and Jails to Rehabilitate It's Inmates
Are Our Prisons Really Doing Their Job?
- http://voices.yahoo.com/the-effectiveness-prison-jails-rehabilitate-168550.html

Note it gives references to other articles for what it is stating... it also as links to similar articles in the 'MORE' line.

 

[ragnarok1337]

...That's a Yahoo article. That makes its credibility suspect at best.

 

[PCHeintz72]

...That's a Yahoo article. That makes its credibility suspect at best.

Yes... I actually considered that myself, as Yahoo as proven themselves anti-male.

But, I pointed out that article in turn references several others

 

[daniel_gudman]

To back them up (Treadweaver and Rukia)... a simple search found a few interesting articles... here is one link:

The Effectiveness of Prison and Jails to Rehabilitate It's Inmates
Are Our Prisons Really Doing Their Job?
- http://voices.yahoo.com/the-effectiveness-prison-jails-rehabilitate-168550.html

The Washington Post article and the NYT article and the random Yahoo commentator here are all basically concluding "people re-offend because prisons aren't offering enough re-education programs to teach them non-crime skills."

So your post doesn't support TW and Rukia, it contradicts them???

ANYWAY
I dunno if anyone else here has a subscription to The Economist but this week's issue has a special feature, a 4-page essay: What's gone wrong with democracy? Non-subscribers can read a few articles/day before running into the paywall so y'all should be able to access it.

 

[byakuryuu]

The problem with politicians is the same problem that you have when you're in a group assignment for a university project. It's other people - someone who you really don't know beyond the media on whether or not they can perform to the standard you expect. That's why when I vote - if I ever will - it'll be exercised to a guy who doesn't just promise but actually outlines his plan, the parties involved and has a projection estimate at least for the next 7 years. It's not foolproof but it's probably something you can build on - whether he follows through or not'd probably be a question for when he's in office - if he can't follow through, out he goes.

Failure I can tolerate - non-action and deliberate masking is something I cannot.

 

[rukia8492]

Danial the problem is prison do teach them trades. Unfortunately they realize they get 3 hots and a cot and grow to like being in prison. Not to mention a lot of them do have the mentality of "sticking it to the man". Also its a source of pride in the ghettos to have gone to prison.

 

[core_88]

To back them up (Treadweaver and Rukia)... a simple search found a few interesting articles... here is one link:

The Effectiveness of Prison and Jails to Rehabilitate It's Inmates
Are Our Prisons Really Doing Their Job?
- http://voices.yahoo.com/the-effectiveness-prison-jails-rehabilitate-168550.html

The Washington Post article and the NYT article and the random Yahoo commentator here are all basically concluding "people re-offend because prisons aren't offering enough re-education programs to teach them non-crime skills."

So your post doesn't support TW and Rukia, it contradicts them???

ANYWAY
I dunno if anyone else here has a subscription to The Economist but this week's issue has a special feature, a 4-page essay: What's gone wrong with democracy? Non-subscribers can read a few articles/day before running into the paywall so y'all should be able to access it.

Great article and yeah it looks like most young democracies falls due to poor planning a true democracy should be ruled by majority without oppression of the minority .
Interesting bit at the end with citizen's initiative it's something i'm definitely for and if you are worried about shortsightedness do as the Swiss: mandatory waiting period between the introduction of the bill and voting the Swiss use a 2-3 years period for this.

 

[core_88]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26379722
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/world/europe/ukraine.html?hp&_r=0
So Russia secured the Crimea with armed forces apparently.
Fucking hell did the Eu and US drop the ball or what?
I hope Ukrania get a lot more aid from the west now if only to one up the Russians because i'm tired of Tsar Putin right now.

 

[WhiteShoeQueen]

Just scrap the system we have now and create a new one from scratch.

 

[zerohour]

Just scrap the system we have now and create a new one from scratch.

I vote for the TwichPlaysPokemon style.

PRAISE HELIX!