Comments on: Vote, vote, vote for Me! http://www.blogut.ca/2009/03/13/vote-vote-vote-for-me/ A blog about University of Toronto events, news, university groups, clubs, campus life, and toronto student life: written by U of T students. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:41:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Mark @ OISE http://www.blogut.ca/2009/03/13/vote-vote-vote-for-me/comment-page-1/#comment-149017 Mark @ OISE Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:03:33 +0000 http://www.blogut.ca/2009/03/13/vote-vote-vote-for-me/#comment-149017 Yeah, you've hit the nail on the head - nominal democracy is over-rated because it has come to put too much emphasis on elections and voting. Even the fact that students have a "voice" on Governing Council doesn't mean that students' concerns will be heard, or that students can actually influence governance processes at the university. Naylor wants to Americanize U of T? Students have little ability to change his mind. Now write this situation large, and you have the provincial and federal systems, when a man who is elected with the votes of less than a quarter of the population can claim a mandate for reactionary changes, and disclaim any responsibility to actually listen to the three-quarters of the population who didn't want him. Bring back the Ancient Greek system (in the Cleisthenes era, circa 4th c. B.C.) Yeah, you’ve hit the nail on the head – nominal democracy is over-rated because it has come to put too much emphasis on elections and voting. Even the fact that students have a “voice” on Governing Council doesn’t mean that students’ concerns will be heard, or that students can actually influence governance processes at the university. Naylor wants to Americanize U of T? Students have little ability to change his mind.

Now write this situation large, and you have the provincial and federal systems, when a man who is elected with the votes of less than a quarter of the population can claim a mandate for reactionary changes, and disclaim any responsibility to actually listen to the three-quarters of the population who didn’t want him.

Bring back the Ancient Greek system (in the Cleisthenes era, circa 4th c. B.C.)

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