Saturday, January 17, 2004
Democracy
This article by Juan Cole raised for me, the question of how democratic are we democrats willing to be?
If we say that we believe in democracy, then we should respect the decision of a country to choose an Islamic theocracy. But do we? My thinking on this goes along the line of saying that many of the women would not have voted as they truly wished but rather as they were told by their husbands and fathers. Similarly, I would question whether people are able to think independantly of the clerics who are telling them how to vote.
Looking at this from a distance it doesn't look a lot like democracy, does it. I see a similar situation here in Australia. For instance, I suspect that if there was a referendum on the death penalty now, the people would vote in favour of bringing it back. To me, this is horrifying. I would fight vigourously against the return of the death penalty and would not respect or cooperate with its implementation if approved. What does that do for my alleged democratic principles?
What do you think?
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This article by Juan Cole raised for me, the question of how democratic are we democrats willing to be?
If we say that we believe in democracy, then we should respect the decision of a country to choose an Islamic theocracy. But do we? My thinking on this goes along the line of saying that many of the women would not have voted as they truly wished but rather as they were told by their husbands and fathers. Similarly, I would question whether people are able to think independantly of the clerics who are telling them how to vote.
Looking at this from a distance it doesn't look a lot like democracy, does it. I see a similar situation here in Australia. For instance, I suspect that if there was a referendum on the death penalty now, the people would vote in favour of bringing it back. To me, this is horrifying. I would fight vigourously against the return of the death penalty and would not respect or cooperate with its implementation if approved. What does that do for my alleged democratic principles?
What do you think?
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