Monday, May 4, 2009

Pogge 6-7

I think Pogge's chapter 6 and prompted the following two thoughts when I read it.
First-a brief tangent. Pogge states on page 152 "Democracy involves voting--on political issues or on candidates for political offices--in accordance with the general idea of one-person-one-vote." (Pogge 152) After taking a class regarding Supreme Courts and election law last semester, though, this assertion seems controversial. That is because strict adherence to one-person-one-vote as the fundamental aspect of voting is an American ideal, but an international interpretation of democracy (at least that of Canada and Great Britain, among others) believes voting must only lead to effective representation. Although Pogge talks about other aspects of democracy, such as shielding the public from unmonitored coercion, I felt compelled to comment on this subject. Tangent over.
My second point is that, while Pogge addresses voting in the above statement, he fails to link voting as an aspect of stability. In my comparative politics course with Professor Williams, we discussed the idea that, statistically, countries able to hold three democratic elections (even if limited cheating is involved) are vastly more stable in the long-run compared to democracies unable to hold three consecutive elections. A major premise, then, is that our aid to developing democracies should be focused to the election infrastructure rather than making government infrastructures dependent on developed democracies. I believe that Pogge, if introduced to the statistical data behind these findings, would consider this another potentially viable solution.

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