送交者: 吴礼 于 2006-2-15, 15:53:48:
回答: It only works within certain range 由 HunHunSheng 于 2006-2-15, 14:03:35:
It does not mean people in a democratic country are more rational. However, irrational mentalities usually are hard to form consensus. And democratic processes of decision making are usually slow enough to damp out impulsive reactions.
Of course there are counter examples. For one thing, the Soviet Union was not democratic. But fortunately it was pretty rational during the cold war, so the world is still here. And certainly there is no shortage of cracy democratic countries. But I submit that it is still a general rule.
And, I know, you may bring up the cracy act of U. S. in Iraq. But there are also others who argue that this is a breaking down of democracy, instead of the work of democracy. Some still think that Bush was "elected by the judges".
However, it doesn't mean a democratic country won't go to the war. There are cases where going to war is a rational decision. That may be the case for Israel and Palastan.
And being rational is not always advantagous. I cannot imagine China would threaten to trade half of the home land with a dozen of U. S. cities in a nuclear exchange, if China was democratic. But apparently such threat works.