At the beginning of the week, we discussed a Thomas Paine quote that describes government as a “necessary evil.” My opinion on this remains in agreement with this quote. No government will be perfect enough to meet the expectations and standards of everyone it serves. Because of this, I do not think we will ever be able to live in a utopian society. However, there are forms of government that are less dystopic (or more utopic) than others. In my opinion, the best form of government would be a combination of liberal democracy (a democratic republic) combined with social democracy.
In a democratic republic, laws are established by a majority vote from the people or publicly elected representatives. America practices a federal democratic republic form of government that includes a political party system. The federal portion means we have a national/federal government that establishes laws, but individual states also establish their state laws. The most dominant parties are the Democratic and Republican parties but there are others such as Reform, Libertarian, Socialist, Green, etc. In America, the party divide is most commonly between races. Each party has a mix of races which means the divide is not exact. However, white people tend to dominate the Republican party, and people of color tend to dominate the Democratic Party.
The democratic republic form of government usually works well in establishing fairness among the people. The concern here is that when there is a majority that continuously wins over another, laws become in favor of one party, leaving other parties unhappy or disadvantaged. To correct this, I would suggest social democracy. Social democracy ensures all citizens have particular social rights. These social rights include access to healthcare, education, childcare, and more. Social democracy protects citizens from discrimination against sex, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, social class, age, etc. I believe the practice of social democracy is important because it alleviates some of the disadvantages a party may have.
A society cannot live in a utopian state of nature until all people are in a utopic state of mind. A major part of this state of mind involves universal access to QUALITY public services, which should be considered required social rights. Countries such as Germany, Australia, and Sweden already utilize social democracy as a form of government, but they are imperfect I do not believe any government will ever be because there will always be a factor missing. I believe the combination of a democratic republic and a social democracy is the closest we will get to a less dystopian state of nature. This brings me back to my first point of Thomas Paine being accurate in his belief that government will always be a necessary evil.
