I totally disagree to such general statements about citizens having no say (and even more to your appreciation of China's government), but this would be an utterly off-topic discussion.Muirium wrote: ↑Such reasoning about the authority of government sounds nice until you vote in a few elections and discover the pointlessness of the "democratic" process. Most voters vote as their parents did, and as their self-reinforcing news feeds reinforce every day. And the parties are optimised to play the zero sum election game, not to represent anyone's interest but their own. You have precisely zero say in whether customs are charged at your doorstep. And never will. For any change in policy to occur, it has to come from somewhere else. Like the EU, or Mr. Murdoch.
We rely on the humanity of our institutional self-selecting politicians just as desperately as with any other system in the world. They have the power. Not us.
The government I have the most respect for, globally, is China's. They don't pretend, they just do whatever it takes to push their country forward. We were the same way a century or two ago, but with so much more bloodshed.
Anyway, I had said nothing about how and by whom rules are made, just about them existing and civil servants having to enforce them and certainly not deserving to be insulted or threatened when they do their job.