Democracy Cookbook

The Democracy Cookbook is a project created by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Memorial University of Newfoundland where various contributors offer "recipes" for improving the Newfoundland political system.

Co-edited by political scientist Dr. Alex Marland and author and professor Lisa Moore, the publication consists of 76 opinion pieces and 11 actual recipes authored by a cross-section of academics, students, journalists, restaurateurs and other citizens.¹

The very first article I've read already uses the term 'democracy' incorrectly.²

Democracy means that global direct democracy (or universal direct democracy if humans colonize other planets) has highest authority.  Supporting regional direct democracy while opposing global direct democracy is sophistic.  The far-right United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) supports regional direct democracy but would never support global direct democracy.  The ideal scenario for UKIP members and supporters would be one where millions of far-right individuals from across the planet flock to the UK and use regional direct democracy to vote in foreign policies that destroy the rest of humanity.  They will say it was "democratic" when global direct democracy would have never allowed for such.

This is why it's important to make sure people understand that global direct democracy has highest authority and that anybody opposing global direct democracy opposes democracy.  Sophists will immediately say that 'democracy' means constitutionally-limited government and will argue that such things are necessary to protect human rights.  This is a lie used to maintain constitutions that are arbitrarily enforced on the public and only protect slave-maker rights.  If an arbitrary constitution has greater authority than public will, it's not democracy.

Does Canada qualify as a democracy?  No.  Did ancient Athens qualify as a democracy?  Obviously not.  It's irresponsible for people to describe ancient Athens as a democracy when it was clearly a single-party authoritarian state denying suffrage to 80-90% of its population.³

To qualify as a democracy, a state must officially recognize the supreme authority of global direct democracy where every adult gets a vote.  Regional direct democracy would have next highest authority — regional representative democracy after that.

I despise applying the term 'democracy' to constitutional monarchies such as Canada and the United Kingdom and to constitutional republics like the United States because anytime fascists (comprising Stalinists) don't like a proposed reform that would create conditions closer to real democracy, they will point out that the given country is not a democracy but a constitutional republic or constitutional monarchy anyway.

The criteria for qualifying as a democracy must be extremely strict since almost every non-democratic state declares itself democratic.

Political cartoon satirizing elections in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

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1. Harron, Janet. "The Democracy Cookbook." Gazette, 14 Sep. 2017, https://gazette.mun.ca/public-engagement/the-democracy-cookbook/. Accessed 25 Sep. 2017.
2. Wesley, Jared. "Why focus on provincial politics?" Democracy Cookbook, 16 Sep. 2017, http://www.thetelegram.com/opinion/2017/9/19/democracy-cookbook--why-focus-on-provincial-politics-.html. Accessed 25 Sep. 2017.
3. Schwartzberg, Melissa. "What did democracy really mean in Athens?" Ted-Ed, 24 Mar. 2015, youtu.be/0fivQUlC7-8. Accessed 25 Sep. 2017.