A democratic twist

In an age where most of the western world lives in a democratic society, just how democratic are the countries we live in?

This question raised its ugly head as I lay here watching a television program about nomads in Kazakhstan who roam the lands with their animals living a peaceful, yet hard working existence. These people do not care for the politics of the world that we endure on a daily basis through taxes and various life changing decisions made for us by the powers that be.

What made me think about how democratic our election systems are is the facts that it seems politicians have the ability to make decisions that are against the policies which bought them to power and are also against the will of the people they serve.

Take Tony Blair for instance, when were the British people given the opportunity to have a say about the decision to go to war in Iraq, or George Bush and his decisions on foreign policy which a lot of the American population probably don’t even know about, let alone support.

It seems that we can democratically elect a person on the policies they wish to change. Once they are in power, if they have the majority of politicians support them, they can change the policy against what bought them to power of a whole country at the drop of a hat.

While I understand it is not always feasible to change policies that the people want, all we ask is that you are up front and tell us the truth instead of making decisions that affect our lives without consulting us first.