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Democracy with a Marxist flavor
Democracy can not be claimed as a result of the work and views of liberals only. Socialism is inside it. Words do not say, People say. The words are actually meaningless, aka neutral. People who actually give the meaning to those words. The word "democracy" is also without meaning. That's why so many adjectives behind "democracy".
Brian S Roper identified 3 types of democracy that have ever lived on earth. Athenian Democracy, Liberal Representative Democracy ans Sosialist Partisipatory democracy. Roper produced three identification after tracing the practice of democracy since ancient Greek times to the contemporary period. Lecturer of political science at the University of Otago, New Zealand wrote to the book "The History of Democracy" (London: Plutopress 2013).
What's interesting is the book's subtitle: A Marxist Interpretation. With Marxist analysts knife, according to Roper, democracy was more a struggle product of intensive classes rather than the decision or agreement from legislators.
In the Athens, there was a class struggle between the owner and the oppressed. Possessing classes include the landlords, merchants, and moneylenders. Meanwhile, the oppressed were farmers, workers and the poor in general.
The owner class more liked oligarchy because they could use the state power to increase the exploitation against the oppressed class. In contrast, the oppressed class pushed for democracy for countries to remove or at least to reduce the exploitation.
Roper called the development of democracy in Athens became the most important source of inspiration for modern political thought. The Idealism -- such as the equal rights of citizens, freedom, respect for law and justice -- influenced of Western political thought.
Representative democracy, according to Roper, was born as a result of the class struggle between feudal lords and capitalists. There was also explained that the representative democracy began when a transition from feudalism to capitalism. So, it was no accident of history when capitalism and democracy emerged almost simultaneously.
Roper concluded, the decline of feudalism democracy and the rise of capitalism in Western Europe and North America in the 17th century to the 19th created the conducive social and economic conditions for the birth of representative democracy. When the representative democracy had been established, the political system facilitated the development of capitalism more broadly. Why representative democracy? Because the capitalists were concerned to establish democracy, to strengthen democracy itself.
Those who sit in legislature actually were the representative or capitalists extension. Representative Democracy alienated the underclass of political participation. Quoting Marx and Engles, Roper criticized capitalism and representative democracy. According to him, democracy was merely representative political oligarchy rooted in Roman oligarchy system. He also revealed that the Magna Charta, the English Constitution 1688, the Declaration of Independence 1776 and the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were the Roman oligarchy system development.
Meanwhile, Socialist Participatory Democracy was rooted in democratic Athens in the 4th century to the 5th century BC, that was long ago proposed by Marx and Engles as an alternative to representative democracy. Even Roper argued further that Participatory Democracy had the potential to surpass Athenian democracy and Representative Democracy. Socialism Participatory Democracy involving the working class more broadly than the Athenian democracy and representative democracy in influencing government decisions. In Socialist Participatory Democracy, the control of production and distribution were achieved through the institutional mechanism of council network. The right to recall, the election, the council, the expansion of people's democratic rights and democratization of justice, (even if necessary) to form a people's militia to defend the revolution.
Roper believed that Socialist Participatory Democracy was not a utopian. In the history of democratic civilization, the type of democracy had been applied on Paris commune 1871 and Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917.
Roper's support for the implementation of Socialist Participatory Democracy clearly shows his bias in Marxism and socialist, as well as Marxist intellectual consistency.
Theoretically, Roper has unmasked the theory and practice of democracy, that capitalism is actually creating a representative democracy, not vice versa. Furthermore, Roper wants to bypass the dominance of the liberal perspective about democracy.
The book is interesting to read, as a comparison of the dominance of liberalism perspective in the theory and practice of democracy.
*****
(CZ-AZ/lacalifusa021913)
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Basel, Switzerland — Carnival revelers move through the city making music at the "Morgestraich" ("morning prank") celebrations in Basel. The "Morgestraich" marks the beginning of the carnival of Basel lasting 72 hours, which attracts thousands of spectators from Switzerland as well as from Germany, France and Luxembourg.
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