Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Why Democracy Fails

On this week's episode, we feature a past talk given by Hans-Hermann Hoppe highlighting some of the key points he makes in his book 'Democracy: The God That Failed'. The subject seems particularly topical as American elites have become increasingly comfortable dropping the façade of democracy, with the Washington establishment becoming increasingly transparent in their intentions to undercut the success of populist campaigns, such as Donald Trump’s.

Hoppe’s lecture not only shows how democratic elections often lead to bad results, but illustrates how political democracy is often incompatible with human liberty. True democracy is instead found in the marketplace, with voluntary actors free of the threat of government force.

[hoogen]

NPC Historian: monarchy bad democracy good lol

[dmfc]

Who would have guessed the culmination of 180 million desires wouldn't produce Utopia?

[seanedwards]

"Masculine republics give way to feminine democracies, and feminine democracies give way to tyranny." - Aristotle

[vaporwavevocap]

I disagree with Hoppe on everything when it comes to social issues but he's absolutely correct about Democracy and he's someone I respect regardless of my disagreements. We both desire a better world where we both can choose to physically remove each other, so to speak.

[NicholasWongCQ]

I'm sure what he's saying applies at most to European monarchies. Asian monarchies were completely different kind of beasts.

[yossared]

At the very least, doing away with pointless endless election cycles and all the insanity that the political party system has wrought would be an improvement.

[zeeski]

On the surface this is a strange stance to me, but than I take a step back and see what "democratically elected" officials have destroyed to the west and really start to think a monarchy might be a better option compared to what we have now.

[augustycizauzo]

I never knew a libertarian could be so based

[robertagajeenian]

We should really get used to saying the "Democrat" voter, not the "democratic" voter, is the greatest threat to liberty in our time. The distinction (a long-term one for me) is increasingly useful. Best.

[tomjones]

Even a monarch is temporary...he/she is going to die....yes, an heir will get it, but that too can have complications...

[thattimestampguy]

5:50 Temporary Care Taker vs Full Owner

Relationship makes a difference on how you will act

9:50 Kid behavior vs adult behavior
Democracy vs Monarchy

[無所不在的權力]

I think Mr Hoppe's has a assumption that all the kings were rational and intelligent. But in the real cases, most of them were not. Monarchy indeed limited the economy development, that is the history of China.

[shepardthinks]

Excellent points, as a voluntarist though, i observed that he is in essence arguing that methamphetamine is worse than nicotine, and I think he would agree that neither are good drugs for folks to consume. The voluntaryist perspective would be that "no government" is the pure and good way a society could organize itself.

[aight]

a bit off topic question: what stops a state from printing money and hiding the fact they're doing that (if they can even hide it)

[vladanlausevic]

Hoppe has in his argumentation lot of nostalgia for monarchies. Forgetting that people in monarchies were trying to make decisions through conversations and lobby between different interest groups and social classes.

[comesahorseman]

Democracy is two lions and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
Monarchy is one lion informing one sheep what's for dinner.
The difference to the sheep, please? 🤨🤔

[LC-human]

Democracy has served us until now, Religion has as well. Humanity has evolved past them now however. In evolution everything is a stepping stone.

[arankondor]

PHOTO: KATEPANOMEGAS AND ARALDICA MONDADORI VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.
According to a survey published by the Istituto Piepoli about 12 million Italians, 15% of the population, are in favour of a return of the monarchy.

Because of this, His Royal Highness Prince Emmanuel of Savoy continues his fight for a new Italian monarchy. Last week, he spoke about his idea to establish the Italian monarchy in several Italians newspapers. Among them the Italian paper Mole24 who asked him in detail how his plan could work.

The words in some of Italy’s largest newspapers and TV stations last week read: “Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia is seriously considering the idea of founding a new monarchist party in Italy”.

Since last time the Prince stated that he wanted a new monarchy, he has gained much more support than he had expected. The Prince is now working on his initiative, which would result in the most significant monarchist movement in Italy for decades.

[seanedwards]

There never has been or ever will be a government that is a pure Monarchy. These kinds of governments are more accurately described as oligarchies. No single person can rule over an entire nation. Every king must secure the support of the aristocracy and the general population, or they end up on the chopping block.

[AnarchoPurp]

He’s right. I’m going to become king and when I do, I will make Hoppe clean my feet. I’m sure he will agree that his standard of living has improved.