3 different takes on democracy: America, Afghanistan, Venezuela

When I think of democracy, I look around the world and see three very different ways of dealing with the popular will. (Click here, here, here, here and here for some of my other blogs on democracy. The last on that five-click list is about Plato’s prediction of the inevitable trajectory: democracy, oligarchy, tyranny.) Anyway, moving on to the three examples:

First, the United States.

At one end of the ideological spectrum is a Pew Research Centre survey conducted between August 23 to August 29. With the US military evacuation of Afghanistan completed, 54 per cent of US adults said the decision to withdraw troops from the country was the right one and 42 per cent said it was wrong. There is, of course, also clear evidence that the American public is unenthused about the way Joe Biden handled the pull-out. But, the administration’s decision to leave Afghanistan was democratic. It was made by an elected president and reflected the popular will.

The other end of the spectrum is the issue o…