Friday, October 16, 2009

Democracy and Pragmatism

Someone would debt, especially in areas that democracy are not in the root of traditional culture like Singapore, China (including Hong Kong), the value and suitability of implementing democratic political system. Most of the argument is that democracy cannot solve social problems in a timing manner; we see only fight, debate in LegCo, this does nothing good to the society. Our CE of the HKSAR has the same ideology when explaining his Policy Address. This is a typical pragmatism point of view, or he may just use this as an argument to rationalise his(central government) decision of banning the universal suffrage.

The fundamental value of democracy is not for the sake of efficiency of system but the balance of power and interests in the society or group to show justice. If one is seeking efficiency, dictatorship is which one wants. If you want to know what justice means in a contemporary sense, please refer to John Rawls's Two Principles of Justice in "A Theory of Justice".