Hi all,
I know one of the big differences between general European vs. general American political philosophy is that the former usually gives a more active, enforced role to the government then the latter.
Here, I don't want to talk about this normative issue. Not on how much government policiy should be based on public opinion/the general will/the arithmetic mean of preferences of however you want to call it. But I'd like to explore with you the thought how much consent government needs before it can be effective (rather then legitimate).
On the hand, a government can be very autoritarian, like China. But even a government like that won't survive the discontent of major (and powerful) groups within the society.
On the other hand, a oligarchic/democratic government like the US/ any western european country sometimes succesfully legislates laws which a great deal of the people disagree with.
What are your thoughts about it? Does there excist some critical value X, where X is the amount of citizens unhappy with the government, beyond which government will always fall? Or is the government able to steer the country in a more unilateral fashion? Is politics insignificant or can the state create a Utopia right of the drawing board?
I know one of the big differences between general European vs. general American political philosophy is that the former usually gives a more active, enforced role to the government then the latter.
Here, I don't want to talk about this normative issue. Not on how much government policiy should be based on public opinion/the general will/the arithmetic mean of preferences of however you want to call it. But I'd like to explore with you the thought how much consent government needs before it can be effective (rather then legitimate).
On the hand, a government can be very autoritarian, like China. But even a government like that won't survive the discontent of major (and powerful) groups within the society.
On the other hand, a oligarchic/democratic government like the US/ any western european country sometimes succesfully legislates laws which a great deal of the people disagree with.
What are your thoughts about it? Does there excist some critical value X, where X is the amount of citizens unhappy with the government, beyond which government will always fall? Or is the government able to steer the country in a more unilateral fashion? Is politics insignificant or can the state create a Utopia right of the drawing board?
