-----Original Message----- From: Brad De Long <delong at econ.Berkeley.EDU> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Tuesday, March 30, 1999 11:01 AM Subject: Re: Political evolution or political unrest?
>Re
>>
>>
>>Haiti and Mexico have lots of elections as well. Heck, even Serbia had a
>>couple. What's the point?
>>
>Ah. Well, there *are* those of us who think that elections are important
>because they are a less-than-completely-ineffective mechanism for producing
>governments that derive their just powers from the consent of the
>governed...
Less then completely ineffective in allowing people to think that without cognitive dissonance to be sure, but just boiling things down to the rubric of liberal democratic elections or Stalinized party-run state is such an oversimplification that anyone who offers these two as the only choices misses most of history and almost all of the potential for the future.
Nick, still waiting to hear why the Greek resistance *needed* to be crushed by its self-proclaimed allies in order to create democracy.