Democracy It’s Not the Law, It’s Just a Good Idea

posted by jim | April 4, 2010

from Democracy Now; some rights reserved.

“If it is not controversial…If it is not dangerous, if it does not ask us to consider changes that frighten the establishment, it is not about democracy.” -Paul Woodruff, First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea.

I’m leading a reading group on democracy at the Northern Virginia Ethical Society using Paul Woodruff’s book First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea.

Arundahti Roy writes about the experiment of liberal democracy in India…but is it really democracy: I am eager to read her new work.

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Liberty! Who Is Number One?

posted by jim | September 23, 2009

teabagphoto by RachelH; some rights reserved.
Okay it is not a study, but to me it captures some sense of truth. A friend of mine was telling me something he heard: “They say in the U.S. the people are afraid of their government, and in France the government is afraid of its people.”

So who are the freer people? Je ne sais pas, je pose la question.

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