Comments on: Some Ways to Think About Democracy

By: faigdg

faigdg — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:27:29 +0000

By: rhlioz

rhlioz — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:45:20 +0000

By: Kylie

Kylie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:03:55 +0000

Adele, the reason it might fit in with notions of social justice is that if working class people have managed to do well enough to do right-to-buy on their council house, I don’t see why they shouldn’t be allowed to leave it to their equally working class kids if it happens to have reached a value of over £285k.The problem with the response here is that, just as with our 1992 tax higher rate income tax proposals, most Labour people are blind to the aspirations of the poor and working class people we are supposed to represent. We tend to forget that even people who currently don’t pay higher rate tax or inheritence tax aspire and expect to be that well off – loads of people who were not higher rate tax payers voted against us in 1992 because they thought that one day they might be and would be hit by our proposed increase. Andrea – the only reason why this has generated headlines about a split is because of the intemperate reaction to it. A more considered reaction would have been “Treasury always keeps taxes under review as the demographics of the nation change. Mr Byers has floated an interesting idea, it will be for him to see if there is support for it in the National Policy Forum process etc.”

By: Towering Over the Dilletantes « Bad Conscience

Towering Over the Dilletantes « Bad Conscience — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 07:34:06 +0000

[...] however, this does illustrate a point I was getting at recently: that democracy (whatever that complex thing turns out to be in the end) may not match up cleanly with one’s other ethical and political [...]

By: The Conservative Left « Bad Conscience

The Conservative Left « Bad Conscience — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:57:55 +0000

[...] triumphed in the course of history simply because it was right to triumph. We don’t tend to pause and consider just how slippery a concept “democracy” really is. Nor do we often reflect [...]

By: Case Study « Bad Conscience

Case Study « Bad Conscience — Thu, 20 May 2010 08:42:36 +0000

[...] Philosophy, Politics at 9:42 am by Paul Sagar I’ve written a fair few blog posts about how difficult a concept democracy is. In particular, I’ve drawn attention to the fact that “democracy” [...]

By: The Universal Panacea « Bad Conscience

The Universal Panacea « Bad Conscience — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 12:01:44 +0000

[...] I’ve remarked before, democracy is in many ways the modern cardinal political virtue. Despite being synonymous with [...]

By: 2009: Blogging Year in Review « Though Cowards Flinch

2009: Blogging Year in Review « Though Cowards Flinch — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:13:54 +0000

[...] to co-opt Left history, the No Platform Policy/Question Time or the question of Swiss democracy and banning minarets. I like to think our posts can be read as prime socialist/left-liberal answers to the questions of [...]

By: Simon Cowell and the Difficulties of Democracy « Bad Conscience

Simon Cowell and the Difficulties of Democracy « Bad Conscience — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:49:18 +0000

[...] to begin to see just how dark and messy actual democratic practice is, in stark contrast to the fluffy ideals I recently [...]

By: Denial Industry « Bad Conscience

Denial Industry « Bad Conscience — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:09:56 +0000

[...] recently wrote about the potential values of democracy. But it’s worth doing some critical reflection on whether societies in which [...]