Thread: Is Russia a democracy? Плюс то же о некоторых других странах

Originally Posted by alexsms

I will try to keep the position of the vector, the question was probably too simple, cos I am interested in what people think (mostly what non-Russians think, as I can generally anticipate what Russians could say): Do you think that Russia's democracy or not? - that's the implication...

Yes, Russia is a democracy. Russia has fair elections and the government listens to the people. In the US, if we don't like what the government is doing then we can protest and sign petitions. The same is true in Russia. In the US, we have left and right wing media. The same is true in Russia. In the US, people can tell the government what to do and they listen. The same is true in Russia.

Some examples of "listening to the people":
When people in the US wanted the gays to have rights, the government gave them rights.
When people in Russia didn't want kids exposed to gay propaganda, the government passed a law to stop it. Why? Because the majority of the people didn't want that to be happening. The majority of the people is what democracy is all about.

I believe that if I was living in Russia right now, I would feel just as free and democratic as I feel living in the US. And I wouldn't have to face-palm when the president made a speech, lol.
A lot of people in the US argue that since gays don't have rights in Russia, then Russia isn't a democracy. That's not true. A lot of people in the US want pot to be legal and it's not. Does that mean that the US isn't a democracy?
If Russia isn't a democracy because of the gay issue, then the US isn't a democracy because of the pot issue.

People can argue all day about it but in the end, the US and Russia are both democracies.

But I also have 2 more questions.
1. Was the USSR a democracy?
I read a lot of the history about that. The people of Russia wanted to break away from the Tsars and build a form of government that would listen to the people and help them. It was called communism but it was a form of government that was created by the people. So maybe that was a type of democracy too. The Russian Federation is more democratic since it has free elections but I think any government that's created by the people, is still a type of democratic process.
Anyway, I'm really impressed with how democratic Russia is and I think we could learn a lot from President Putin. But don't forget, Russia has more than 1,000 years of experience. We only have about 200 and we're on a steep learning curve.

2. Is democracy important?
Well, if you look at US democracy, what do you see? I see a lot of freedom, security, and a happy life. I see friendly and helpful police who never harass me and a safe neighborhood. That's all I saw till I started reading the news feeds online.
Now what I see is really changing up how I feel about everything. I see police brutality, flash mobs, lots of people being killed without a good reason, economic disasters, a president that makes all the worst decisions, and tons of wars to protect National interests.
Okay, a dude at another forum calls me "rediculously sheltered". But that still doesn't explain why all that stuff is happening and why our National interests have to kill tons of people in countries all over the whole planet. I mean, if that's what democracy is all about then maybe it's not really that special!

So yeah, Russia is a democracy but it's tons more peaceful than American democracy. And President Putin is a democratic president but he's tons more intelligent than President Obama. Imo, we would have a better democracy if we had someone like President Putin in the White House.

Originally Posted by UhOhXplode

But I also have 2 more questions.
1. Was the USSR a democracy?

No. It was not. When the will of the people is hijacked and dominated by a few (or one party) and the application of law becomes arbitrary (no separation of powers) you do not have a functioning democracy. The happenings of the years 1925 - 1939 in particular illustrate that. Otherwise Maximilian Robespierre and his Jakobiners could equally claim to be operating in a democracy by argument of the preceeding events to get rid of the french monarch was an act of the will of the people.

Originally Posted by UhOhXplode

Russia has fair elections and the government listens to the people.

Xplode, many people doubt that the elections here are fair (the results might be real, but the way the election is organized is more than strange: usually there is just one candidate who has a real political 'value'). There is really a huge doubt both domestically and abroad.