democracy
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منتشر شده در: December 25, 2007
Do we really live in a democracy?
We are told we live in a democracy. The word means "rule of the people". But how democratic is Britain really? And do the people really hold the power?
It is true that we have a parliament. It is elected by everyone over the age of 18 at least every five years. We can choose who to vote for.
But once it is elected there is no means of controlling MP''s, parliament or the govemment until the next election. If the government breaks its promises, which it always does, we cannot get rid of it, (according to the law that is), until the next election.
On a day to day basis we see how democratic our society really is. When a factory owner decides to close down a factory, the workers in that factory don''t get a vote on whether it should stay open. There is no debate about it - the factory is his to do with as he pleases. The homeless never get a ballot on whether they can occupy empty housing or change decisions to build homes instead of luxury office blocks. Black people and youth cannot decide to remove racist police who harass and attack them from their area.
Revolutionaries believe that even under the parliamentary system, real power lies outside parliament. Unelected civil servants, the owners of the press and television, judges, police chiefs, and army officers decide what is going to happen in society. The monarchy and the House of Lords, who are not elected by anyone, have the power to delay and block laws. The Queen still has the power to dismiss a government. She used it as recently as 1975, when she sacked an elected Labour government in Australia!
Real power also lies with those who own and control the wealth of society: the top bankers, financiers and big businessmen who make up the capitalist class. It is they who decide how the resources of this country are dished out. As most wealth and property is in their hands they want to keep it that way.
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