Why Is Democracy On The Decline?

Is Democracy itself failing or is it the common practice of having, what is essentially, two-sided government that is causing the decline?

More and more modern government seem to comprise two factions that don’t agree on anything… not necessarily because they don’t want the same things but often because they see their roles as to oppose each other.

So, you tend to get two sides which oppose each other on principle rather than on the issues - two groups of elected representatives who do not really represent the people who voted for them but rather the side to which they have pledged their allegiance.

We only need to look back a decade or so to see how a few thousand people were enough to decide who would govern the most powerful country in the world.
So, does the tyranny of one half of the population over the other seem like a sensible way to decide policy?
Well, of course it isn’t really as simple as that and, in theory, there are many checks and balances to make sure that those in power cannot do whatever they like… Or so we’re told.
It didn’t seem so in the Bush (the younger) years though.

If we consider Cote D'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) it is quite difficult to see the truth as to who should be in power. Initially it was claimed that Ouattara won with 54% of the vote. Then it was claimed by the incumbent President that there had been a lot of corruption and after these votes had been discounted he had won by 51%.

Now it seems that most of the world back Ouattara but my point is that it doesn’t really make sense for a small number of people voting one way or another to decide the fate of all the people and worse to be a possible reason for civil war.

Let’s face it this type of politics must inevitably cause anger and resentment because, essentially, it forces people into rival camps and becomes at least as much about keeping your opponent’s man out as it does about getting yours in.

Worse, in less developed democracies, once one side gets power it almost always favours those who put it in power at the expense of those who opposed it. Then if the opposition protests too much the fashion is to accuse their leaders of being terrorists and throw them in jail which, naturally, simply exacerbates the problem.

Would a democracy that better reflected its people’s wishes by having representatives but not parties be an improvement. A government which was not some fraction of the representatives but all, who could chose to vote by heart or head without being prejudiced by party lines.

Has Democracy evolved to suit the people or those who seek to rule them?

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‘Thailand is among 25 countries which showed significant declines in democracy last year with little serious resistance from the democratic world, the watchdog group Freedom House says.

It was the fifth consecutive year the Freedom House has reported a decline in political rights and civil liberties worldwide.

"Our adversaries are not just engaging in widespread repression, they are doing so with unprecedented aggressiveness and self-confidence, and the democratic community is not rising to the challenge" said David J Kramer, executive director of the group.’
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/216349/thailand-democracy-rating-s...