'' Say what you want about the Turkish president and his extravagant political ambitions, but Erdogan's statement reveals an uncomfortable truth about the present state of democracy in the West.
Irrespective of the political system, be it so-called liberal democracies or the managed democracy Mr. Erdogan presides over, democracy functions as just one of many tools in a ruling class's toolbox to control their subjects.
Even in America, where citizens are constantly reminded, from their high school civics classes all the way to TV broadsides, that democracy is what makes America exceptional among countries, democracy is cynically exploited to advance certain political agendas.
Historian Paul Gottfried observed that in liberal democracies with strong judiciaries, the prevailing political arrangement in the majority of Western governments, referendums are routinely squelched through political or judicial maneuvers.
If the political class were serious about democracy, they would devolve power to legislatures or voter referendums at the state level.
Democracy proponents' efforts would look more credible if they strived to make, nullification, decentralization, and even secessionism integral parts of regular political discourse.
The nomenklatura's hollow appellations to democracy are nothing but a ruse to obfuscate an agenda that's exclusively focused on centralizing political power.
https://mises.org/wire/ruling-class-only-cares-about-democracy-when-it-helps-them
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