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Comment by baxtr | Hacker News Reader

I think one real good test of a democracy is to plot a line with years and above the name of the person ruling the country.

In the US you will see at least every 8 years a different name on top of the line.

I think a good democratic system will not have a new leader every year but maybe every 4-8 years.

Anything below won’t be stable enough for mid/long term policy changes. Anything above will be good for the leader and her entourage but most probably not for the entire country and its democracy.

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It's a good test of one aspect of a democracy, but a democracy is more than just its leader. A strongly independent judiciary is also a crucial element for a fair and free democracy. In my view the US fails in this regard. Its supreme court is effectively made up of politicians; judges with party affiliation who are appointed for life for partisan reasons. Its rulings frequently end up being split down party lines when such a thing is statistically improbable in a system where decisions should be based strictly on interpretation and application of the written words of the law.

Yes of course, it tests only one aspect of a democracy.

So 8 years is fine but 10 isn’t?

Policy dictated by a single elected leader is better than policy set by a group of elected people?

Just because your cultural and educational background has told you that the relatively new US model of democracy is better than that of other countries doesn’t make it so.

This is all stuff you came up with. Not me.

And to your point, increasingly long tenures are increasingly suggestive of a breakdown in democratic norms.

True. If only these elected leaders wouldn’t be controlled by institutions and individuals who (1) are handlers to the elected leaders and (2) are not even elected in the first place.

In the US, who currently has the power over your country? Is it your Biden (where is he?), your Harris? It someone else, maybe unelected?

>Is it your Biden (where is he?)

He's currently at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware and he will be campaigning in Pittsburgh on Monday.

https://rollcall.com/factbase/biden/topic/calendar/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/us/politics/harris-biden-...

At the beach again! What a great life as a president! I’m sure he gets to solve many of the US problems thinking carefully at the beach…

That's a cheap shot that's not even related to your own point from one comment ago.

Not related? Surely I’m still commenting on my parent’s post:

> I think a good democratic system will not have a new leader every year but maybe every 4-8 years.

I’m saying that this democracy is an illusion as long as you have puppet masters controlling these “democratically elected” puppets like Biden.

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