The current Healthcare Nightmare going on in America dispels two persistent myths for us Indians.
Myth 1: Democracy can only thrive when a critical mass of people are educated. Because only then, they can differentiate between right and wrong, and what is good for them and what not. This argument will inevitably be followed by a case for India needing some form of dictatorship or other.
Well, if the democratic debate going on in America about the reform of its ineffective Healthcare system at the moment is anything to go by, it is as easy to dupe educated citizens - one just needs to write down the lies for all to read.
Myth 2: That the only way we can get the moribund Indian government to act decisively, is to have a presidential form of government. I know one person who would clearly not agree with the statement at the moment: President Obama, who is haplessly trying get his own Democratic Party to sign a legislation, which the party members don't feel obliged to in the least.
In fact, Henrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker magazine has pinned his country's problems down to its Presidential form of government in the latest issue.
Through the 90s, America's was the only system to follow, the only country worth emulating. Now suddenly everything American is an anathema. What was the American Dream for the rest of us, seems to have turned into a nightmare.
This is not to say that our system is indeed better. Just to point out, that simply because a system seems to work in another country isn't reason enough to adopt it. For you never know, when it might stop working even for them.
2 comments:
The American system may be prone to gridlock, but the Californian system takes the cake. It's democracy gone completely bonkers. All kinds of propositions are voted on, and have to be followed by those elected to power.
I have no clue about the Californian system. Will have to look it up. But if they can elect Terminator for a governor, they probably are pretty arbitrary.
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