Democracy's serious problem No 1 - conflict-based leadership

America has a problem. The leadership contest. The party primaries system to choose party candidates drags on for months, destabilising business planning. Additionally the system attracts huge money to assist candidates so money not quality dominates the choice of a party candidate at the subsequent election. So far we are lucky that this system does not apply here but there are murmurs because we too have leader problems. They are endemic in any party system of government because, so far, peoples have not the wit to realise that parties are not compatible with democracy, and never will be. Check secretballot.info for more information on the democratic advance which could and ought to be, in so-called democratic countries, let alone the dictatorships and oligarchies that rule so many other countries.

Democracy should be about decisions made by the people for the people as in Athens long ago, in public gatherings. We need to do this again and dispense with the leaders. They are the source of all the trouble and are the instigators of every conflict, in many places, so often armed with guns and bombs.

For example, our parliament is experiencing at present a particularly odious conflict between the ruling and opposition parties in the lead up to another election. The hung parliament of the last election was only rescued by some independents choosing the present party in power to form a stable government. Deposing the previous party leaders and Prime Minister has not cleared the air and the Opposition leader is having a ball, joyfully attacking the ongoing leader in most repulsive performances every day. All this is quite foreign to democracy of any claim to reality. It simply could never happen under the reform long proposed by followers of the secret ballots in parliament concept detailed in the above site.

For example, there would be no parties, all the members being independent and the prime minister and other ministers being elected by the members. With all decisions being made by ballot of the members, all power would be confined to the ballot of the members on every debated issue. Democracy would soon be complete with the members returning to establish their relationship with constituents by holding regular local forums, connecting the people to parliament in a democratic structure of rising people power.