Friday, October 21, 2011
Democracy=Liberty??
Good piece here from Ed Brayton on liberty and democracy.
That tyranny can be implemented democratically should be obvious, especially in this country. All of those laws that threw gay people in jail for centuries were passed by democratically elected legislatures. Same with laws against interracial marriage. And the same with all sorts of authoritarian laws passed by Congress all the time. Democracy provides very little protection against tyranny and sometimes even encourages it.
That’s the whole point of having a Bill of Rights that attempts to put individual liberty out of the reach of elected legislatures.
That tyranny can be implemented democratically should be obvious, especially in this country. All of those laws that threw gay people in jail for centuries were passed by democratically elected legislatures. Same with laws against interracial marriage. And the same with all sorts of authoritarian laws passed by Congress all the time. Democracy provides very little protection against tyranny and sometimes even encourages it.
That’s the whole point of having a Bill of Rights that attempts to put individual liberty out of the reach of elected legislatures.
