Socialist Opinions on...

[Montes]

I'm still trying to get a hold of socialist politics and whatnot, so I was wondering how well socialism is compatible (or not compatible) with Federalism and the Separation of Powers?

[ZombieGrits]

I was just thinking about this earlier today myself...

In a strict-definition communist society, there would be no state, and thus no federalism. Each individual community would govern itself democratically. In a socialist "transitional period" into stateless communism, I could see there still being a form of federalism in place, just with direct democracy as opposed to representatives.

[Montes]

Alright makes sense. But in the transition period, what would there be?

And what about the separation of powers?

[ContrarianLemming]

from an anarchist perspective, any future anarchist society for be a confederation; a more radical form of federation that does not require a state as a prerequisite.
Not sure what you mean by seperation of powers

[x371322]

Not sure what you mean by seperation of powers

Separation of Powers means power is divided into various branches of government, (Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary) ensuring that no one branch ever gets too powerful. Probably a good thing to keep around, in some form at least, as long as we have a state.

[ContrarianLemming]

Separation of Powers means power is divided into various branches of government, (Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary) ensuring that no one branch ever gets too powerful. Probably a good thing to keep around, in some form at least, as long as we have a state.

Such seperation of powers would also be present in pure communism/anarchism

I think you're views on what a post government communist society would look like are a bit skewed, I can clearly imagine a constitution, a congress of delegates, a militia, seperation of powers, all brought together in socialist confederalism

[Proletarian Ultra]

Marx's model government was the Paris Commune, where there was no separation of powers. There are a number of reasons why he was completely right about that, all of which I'm can't be fucked to go into at the moment. But basically:

Countries with strong separation of powers: US, Mexico, Venezuela (pre-Chavez), Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, the Phillipines, Afghanistan, Iran.

Countries without strong separation of powers: UK, Canada, France, Japan, the Nordic countries, Australia, New Zealand.

Where would you rather live?

A strong separation between the executive and legislative branches encourages inaction and preserves the status quo. You can't bring about socialism that way.

[x371322]

Such seperation of powers would also be present in pure communism/anarchism

I think you're views on what a post government communist society would look like are a bit skewed, I can clearly imagine a constitution, a congress of delegates, a militia, seperation of powers, all brought together in socialist confederalism

What are you talking about? I didn't say anything about my views on a post government communist society. I just said that Separation of Powers are a good thing to have with a State. Although I can see PT Cruz's point in that it can preserve the status quo. But still, I say some degree of power separation is necessary.

[ContrarianLemming]

last post driected at OP, my mistake

[x371322]

last post driected at OP, my mistake

Oh okay. My bad then. I was like what? :laugh:

[CartCollector]

The thing with separation of powers is that it's a political concept based on capitalist psychology, that is to say, we work together best when we work against each other. We need a government that works together with its citizens' interests, not one that encourages petty factionalization. These types of institutionalized separations lead to weakness and stagnation, as PT Cruz pointed out. People factionalize enough on their own- they don't need to be encouraged to do so by an outside authority. The attempts of capitalists to divide and weaken us fill us with anger- why should we divide ourselves and do their work for them?

Also, I'd like to take this moment to point out the irony that the country that has slogans like "United we Stand, Divided we Fall" and "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of many, one) is the same one that has a gigantic hardon for separation of powers.