Tomorrow is 83 (almost 84) year old Shimon Peres's great day. He may finally win an election. That is if party discipline holds strong in the democratic secret ballot for Israel's President. Now, "party discipline holds strong in the democratic secret ballot." Wow! That's an oxymoron in the lexicon of political science.
Are those three terms compatible if used together? Because what they mean is that according to Israeli democracy, Knesset Members are required to vote for the candidate their party is supporting, if the head of the party so demands. But according to the Knesset Law, as decided in a democracy, there will be secret ballots. That means that nobody is supposed to know for whom the MK votes.
No wonder that Two-Thirds of Israelis Dissatisfied with the Democracy. The Israeli version of democracy is a mockery! That's why pre-Disengagement Arik Sharon got away with firing ministers who opposed it. Israeli society doesn't have the same cultural definition of democracy as those raised in America do.
In recent weeks, Parshat Shavua, the Torah Portion of the week, has pointed out the inherent weakness in democracy. Parshot Shlach and Korach remind us that the majority aren't always right.
Simply put, we shouldn't follow the majority. So it seems like democracy isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Who said that life was simple? Not me.
2 comments:
"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." - Sir Winston Churchill
wise man
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