Democracy principle

We suggest that the octet rule be demoted in favour of the democracy principle almost all valence electrons can participate in chemical bonding if provided with sufficient energetic incentives. Simple concepts of atomic size and of electronegativity differences prove to be of particular utility in qualitative descriptions. We find no evidence for the utilization of d functions as valence orbitals, or to support notions of p -d back-bonding. 

There are many texts that make the point very clearly that the bonding in a molecule such as SFfi has very little to do with the availability of d atomic orbitals, but this is normally done in the context of MO theory, whereas the general ideas of utilizing d orbitals are much more closely allied with the ideas of classical valence bond theory. This, perhaps, is one of the reasons for the continued survival of such models. The purpose of this Chapter is to describe various calculations which have been performed using modern valence bond theory, in its spin-coupled form, resulting in a useful aide memoire which we term the democracy principle. We argue that there are no significant qualitative differences between the hypercoordinate nature of first-row, second-row and noble gas atoms in appropriate chemical environments. 

Urbinati, Nadia 2006. A Republic of Citizens Condorcet s Indirect Democracy, in Representative Democracy Principles and Genealogy. Chicago University Press, ch. 6, pp. 176-222. 

Explanations for the existence of hypervalent species started with Pauling s proposal of d orbital hybridization [3] where, for example, a set of sp d hybrid orbitals on sulfur was put forward to account for the hexavalence of SFg. Chemical computations [4] ruled out the participation of d atomic orbitals. A later model, the Rundle-Pimentel three-center, four-electron (3c-4e) bonding model [5], does not require d orbital participation and, so, is consistent with chemical computations. Other hypervalency models include the diabatic state model of Dixon and coworkers [6] and the democracy principle of Cooper and coworkers [7]. These various models provide useful insights into some aspects of the electronic structure of hypervalent molecules, but they don t provide an overarching description of these molecules that enables connections to be drawn between hypervalency and related molecular phenomena. 

The democracy principle of Cooper and coworkers [7] states that any valence electron can participate in bonding if it is energetically favorable to do so. This implies a similar conditionaUty as found with the recoupled pair bonding model. The recoupled pair bonding model provides insights into the conditions under which it is energetically favorable to form the type of bonds - recoupled pair bonds - that lead to hypervalence. 

In a modern constitutional democracy, laws are created via a hierarchical legislative process. You will find the principal legal principles laid down in a constitution, which derives its legitimacy directly from the will of the people and can only be amended via referendum. The constitution sets out your basic rights as an individual in the... 

The statement s final points cut to the political issue of race, equality, and democracy social equality as an ethical principle does not depend upon equality of endowment among diverse human beings there is no evidence for the belief that groups differ in capacities for intellectual and emotional development differences within a given race may outstrip differences between races and there is no evidence that racial mixture is disadvantageous from a biological point of view.32... 

The racially disproportionate nature of the war on drugs is not just devastating to black Americans. It contradicts faith in the principles of justice and equal protection of the laws that should be the bedrock of any constitutional democracy it exposes and deepens the racial fault lines that continue to weaken the country and belies its promise as a land of equal opportunity and it undermines faith among all races in the fairness and efficacy of the criminal justice system. Urgent action is needed, at both the state and federal level, to address this crisis for the American nation. ... 

The Polish Journalist Association (SPD, Stowarzyszenia Dziennikarzy Polskich4) is an organization of professionals that has implemented guidehnes and ethical standards similar to Western democracies after the shift from communism. In 1995 a so-called Media Ethics Charter, emphasising the importance of the principles of truth, objectivity, honesty, etc., was also adopted by a number of Polish journalist and media organizations.5... 

Anyone who denies the truth about the National Socialist extermination camps betrays the principles on which the Federal Republic of Germany was built. This state is supposed to be a valiant democracy that defends itself when anti-democrats try to subvert it, 174... 

A good many institutions in liberal democracies already take such a form and may serve as exemplars for fashioning new ones. One could say that democracy itself is based on the assumption that the metis of its citizenry should, in mediated form, continually modify the laws and policies of the land. Common law, as an institution, owes its longevity to the fact that it is not a final codification of legal rules, but rather a set of procedures for continually adapting some broad principles to novel circumstances. Finally, that most characteristic of human institutions, language, is the best model a structure of meaning and continuity that is never still and ever open to the improvisations of all its speakers. 

The third and perhaps most important value that courts have incorporated into public decisions about risk is the principle that governmental actions should be explained to the concerned public. It may be hard for us to remember a time when agencies dealt in secret with the interests they were responsible for regulating, and made significant policy decisions without notification or opportunities for the public to comment. Yet the era of open government is not so old even in the United States and its equivalent has yet to materialize in many other Western democracies. 

Many religions accept the concept of just wars. In his book Moral Man and Immoral Society (Scribner, 1934), Reinhart Niebuhr rejected the idea that evil can be accommodated. He believed that selfishness could only be controlled by self-discipline and love. Peace is a fragile, unsteady state, because tribes, movements, nations try to dominate other groups. The acceptance of force as justifiable has resulted in a nearly perpetual state of war in the twentieth century. Our only hope lies in a continual embrace of a biblically inspired faith in liberty, democracy, and in the spreading of these principles throughout the world (David Gelernter. Commentary, November, 2007). 

In this paper, the relevant issues and the proposed redefinitions are reviewed. One of the consequences of these possible redefinitions is that values of many of the fundamental constants, when expressed in the new units, would be exact and many others would have reduced uncertainties. Another possibly surprising result is that the new definitions could be made in such a way that the distinction between base units and derived units, presently specified in the SI, would become unnecessary and could be eliminated. This might be called unit democracy, in which all SI units have equal status. In principle, this scheme could be extended to include an analogous redefinition of the second, but this would have to await improved accuracy in the relevant experiments and theory. Constraints on timing of the proposed redefinitions, which could take effect as early as 2011, will be described. 

The defining trust in the value of knowledge that Oppenheimer ascribes here to science echoes Bohr s succinct formulation of the value of openness The very fact that knowledge is itself the basis of civihzation points directly to openness as the way to overcome the present crisis. Long before them Thomas Jefferson, secure in his understanding of the core principles of democracy, professed a similar conviction. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, he wrote late in life and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise that control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion. ... 

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