The only sane way for the citizenry to cast their ballots in elections, is after they have received relevant, accurate and factual information about the candidates and the issues...
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All about income, taxes, livelihood, for a fair and just society, where everybody can make a living.
The sixth level of democracy is about people's hierarchy of needs. It is very fine to talk about lofty ideals such as democracy and liberties. However, when people are mostly concerned about making ends meet, about putting food on the table, about feeding their children or even finding a safe place to sleep at night, they might be excused for not being so focused on the future of democracy. If democracy is to work at all, it has to work for all. It has to work for all segment of a country's society, and, as we shall see at the seventh level, it has to work for all countries around the globe.
For these reasons, we shall now be more focused on financial issues, and ways to ensure that workers get decent living wages commensurate to their time and labour.
In the fifth level of democracy, we talked about professionals within the context of democratic institutions. Here we shall consider the economic imperative for people to make a living, in order to survive in this materialistic society.
We shall speak about wealth disparity, poverty, labour unions. Also, in this age of booming AI, what are the implications for the labour market? Most importantly, we shall discuss what should be considered a fair wage.
Democracy ought to be the best system of government that allows each citizen to get up the social, human and spiritual ladder, to ascend Maslow's hierarchy of needs, according to their own individual merits.
Within many western democracies, there is a marked tendency towards populism, or even fascistic, authoritarian tendencies.
We see that in many European countries. It is also most obvious within the USA, where a growing segment of the electorate seem comfortable with the idea that Trump openly declares wanting to be a dictator.
Populist political figures are supported by working class people. In the US, a study concluded that working class people supporting Biden and those supporting Trump actually agreed on the most important issues for them (economy, immigration, etc.). It can be argued that a democratic candidate like Biden, officially endorsed by labour organizations, offers better and substantive solutions to their concerns, while Trump on the other hand is only utilizing deceptive propaganda in pursuit of his personal interest.
So, what does drive a certain segment of the population to vote against their economic interest in support of a populist candidate? There is no simple answer to that question, and this website welcomes any academic research that offer some clues. We can start by observing that the feeling of losing control over their own lives pushes many working class people towards populist, fascistic candidates who promises to solve their problems with a strong authoritarian hand.
Democracy has to work for everyone, and we ignore the needs and concerns of the poorest and weakest members of our society to our peril.
Democracy is also defined by the relationships countries have with each other, either amongst democracies or between democracies and authoritarian regimes.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an idea in psychology proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in the journal Psychological Review.