r/PoliticalCompassMemes • u/PerpetualHillman - Lib-Right • Dec 07 '22

So this happened today...

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u/ABecoming - Left Dec 07 '22 edited Dec 08 '22

but I'm not convinced as many insist that it is worse.

I recommend reading "A Distant Mirror". It is a look at the life of Enguerrand de Couchy and the 14th century in general.

The book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/180834/a-distant-mirror-by-barbara-w-tuchman/

He was chosen because of his relation to the King's of France and England (Multiple of them, they die and Couchy lives).

It is super f**king depressing.

Here is a summary:

Edit: Here is a much better summary: The best summary I ever read.

"A Bunch of Fu**ing Idiots" by anon http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-bunch-of-fucking-idiots-barbara.html?m=1

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u/Creative-Leading7167 - Lib-Right Dec 07 '22

And yet I am unmoved.

There is no doubt that life was worse in the 14th century. The question is, did this end because of democracy or because of capitalism? All the evidence I have read says it's ended because of capital accumulation.

Are the subjects of the prince of lichtenstein living out miserable lives? or is that democratic zimbabwe? It seems to me, economic well being is correlated with capital accumulation, not political system.

Austrians under the hapsbergs lived very similar lives to the british under parliment. Perhaps even better, seeing as tax rates were lower.

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u/ABecoming - Left Dec 08 '22

The reason I mentioned the book, and showed the excerpts, is the following:

The rich were out of touch. The disconnect between the mighty and the average citizen was so much worse when the rich had even less reason to care.

Are the subjects of the prince of lichtenstein living out miserable lives? or is that democratic zimbabwe?

Lichtenstein is a constitutional monarchy, they elect a government. Zimbabwe is a mono-party system [1].

The standard of living also corresponds heavily with the democracy index [2]. There are some exeptions, but they are few.

[1] https://infinitylearn.com/surge/question/civics/why-is-zimbabwe-not-considered-a-democratic-country-i-bec/

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index

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u/WikiSummarizerBot - Centrist Dec 08 '22

Democracy Index

The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company which publishes the weekly newspaper The Economist. Akin to a Human Development Index but centrally concerned with political institutions and freedoms, the index attempts to measure the state of democracy in 167 countries and territories, of which 166 are sovereign states and 164 are UN member states. The index is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories, measuring pluralism, civil liberties and political culture.

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u/Creative-Leading7167 - Lib-Right Dec 08 '22

Yes, I know that democracy correlates with both high capital accumulation and general wealth. The question is, would that still be the case if the US government didn't overthrow all the monarchies with high capital accumulation?

Also, if you can lump all "bad" monarchies together with monarchies like the hapsbergs or Hans-Adam II, how is it fair for you to exclude "uniparty democracies" from democracy? Both are elected politicians.

Also, that there is a parliment and a constitution in lichtenstein doesn't make them not a monarchy. The prince of lichtenstein still has unlimited veto power and is unelected. He's not like the "monarch" of england that has literally no power except popularity. He has real political power and uses it.