Reply #26: Okay... [View All]

[redeye]

...what does this have to do with democracy? There's a perfectly good word in Englsih for that: equality.

And on another note, equality is not a precondition for democracy, because mostly in undeveloped societies the rich don't have the technology or the power to own a democratic system. When there isn't enough technology for, for examples, gerrymandering, lobbying, and coordinating activities in various regions, there can easily exist a democracy without economic equality (economic as opposed to racial or gender equality).

Moreover, it's not entirely true that "a little help for the poor is a precondition for democracy." It may be a precondition for democracy to work, but it is not a precondition for democracy itself, because there are many counterexamples (e.g. turn-of-the-19th-century-USA, Weimar Germany). Around 1900, the workers got some of what they wanted via the first social schemes, Progressive politics, and strikes. Was there equality then? No. In that sense, democracy created equality in the USA, not vice versa. Ditto the 1930s and the New Deal, when democracy worked to achieve equaltiy and not vice versa.