Aphorism: Politics
Prevalent political system is best described as "pathocracy"
Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau got social contract wrong.
By now, it should be obvious to everyone that Indian politics has entered spiral of competitive populism.
This not a good news. Here is my proposal to curb it
1. There should be a legal limit for deficit for state budgets (already covered by FRBM act)
2. There should be a nonpartisan agency (like CBO https://cbo.gov) which evaluates manifesto to reconcile with budget. Only approved ones can be announced in polls
Warm body democracy means universal franchise.
In theory democracy seems a good choice for governance.
Under democracy, people (or their representative) are supposed to deliberate for common good.
In reality though, things are quite different.
For a common man common good is at quite low priority, so he is indifferent to democratic process.
He is however motivated by sentiments, most of them quite base, such as resources, so when he actually engages with democracy, it is to extract resources to maximal extent
Therefore, in reality, democracy is transformed to a battle, often bloodless, sometime violent, over resource extraction.
Instead of common good, object of democracy is spoils of war.
And that's why democracy has failed.
(My interpretation of conservatism)
The following quote is for laws, same logic applies for traditions
“William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”
Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”
William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”
Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”