Oddbean new post about | logout
 Other than your first sentence, I think we agree.

When I posted, I was thinking about two different views of democracy. For example, whatever the US Democrats think demoracy is could be undone by US Republicans who were elected by popular vote, so the second view of democracy could be such popular voting.

But regardless of the particular definitions of democracy, I think the statement works.

Suppose you define democracy as extending meaningful voting privileges to all people. In that case, people can vote to restrict voting privileges.

Suppose you define democracy as a strong, unaccountable bureaucracy; something like rule by experts. In that case, the bureaucracy can undo itself by hyperinflation.

Suppose you define democracy as letting the minority have their say and the letting the majority have their way. In that case, the majority can remove the rule about the minority having their say.

All the permutations seem to work too. Suppose you let the first "democracy" be "a strong, unaccountable bureacracy" definition and the second "democracy" be "let the minority have their say and the majority have their way." In that case, the unaccountable bureacracy can overrule the majority.