[pp.int.general] Pirates of Catalonia asking for your support

[Andrew Norton]

On 5/18/2017 4:33 PM, Muriel Rovira Esteva wrote:

> As you may know, nowadays we have a complete lack of democracy in Spain,
> this is why the 15M movement was so important here. The opposition of
> the Spanish Government to negotiate or allow a self-determination
> referendum is just another face of this bad democratic culture.

I think you've confused 'complete lack of democracy' with 'we as a
region aren't getting our way'. According to political scientist Larry
Diamond, democracy consists of four key elements: (a) A political system
for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair
elections; (b) The active participation of the people, as citizens, in
politics and civic life; (c) Protection of the human rights of all
citizens, and (d) A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply
equally to all citizens.
So a specific sub-group (in this case Catalans) wanting to ignore (d)
the rule of law (which can be changed through exercise of (a) in the
furtherance of just (b), is not democracy.

I've checked, and no, there's no 'complete lack of democracy'. Letting a
small group dictate to the larger would actually be the 'complete lack
of democracy'. The Cato institute rates Spain as 36th in its freedom
index, with Hungary, Cyprus, Japan, South Korea, and Slovenia as its
neighbours. If you have a 'complete lack of democracy', what does Greece
- the birth of democracy - have since its down in 48th?

The UK based democracy Index
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index) has Spain at 16th, 12th
is the Netherlands, then Germany, Austria, Malta, UK, SPAIN, Mauritius,
Uruguay, Japan, US, Italy, Cape Verde and then France.

So while I'm sure your appeals to emotion may work well with those that
react to emotions and not facts, one of the core pricipals of the Pirate
movement has always been 'fact-based legislation'. Such bare-faced lies
in an appeal to us, in the pursuit of what is clearly a personal
hobby-horse, calls into question (by me certainly) your personal
commitment to the Pirate ethos, and if there are other core positions
you no-longer feel strongly about.

Andrew


> 
> *Pirates of Catalonia*
> pirata.cat <http://pirata.cat>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ____________________________________________________
> Pirate Parties International - General Talk
> pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
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> 

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