All possibly existing? All that existed in the past compared to more democratic forms of government in their own time? No way.
Take for example the Switzerland on 1960s, where men can vote but women could not. I prefer it to modern Iran where both women and men can vote.
Singapore seems a pretty decent place to live and I have no doubt at all that if you took away the right of voting from its citizens very little if anything would change if the citizens and the international community weren’t irrationally upset over it.
But I’m sure the supreme court in the Switzerland of the 1960s was all male too. Are there actually legal barriers to a woman being on the council or is it just implicit in “a woman can’t be a cleric”?
I’m sure the supreme court in the Switzerland of the 1960s was all male too.
I’m sure it didn’t vet candidates, so that’s not the point. The point is in Iran candidates are vetted by a small (and also all-male) council—which makes the democracy (both male voters and female voters in Iran) significantly smaller than in 1960s Switzerland.
Have you read this article by EY? It explains why merely having the right to vote does a lot for the well-being of a democracy’s citizen, as it’s a permanent plausible threat to the political class.
Of course I am! Terrified about the majority of men voting too.
Aren’t you even more terrified about any currently known society where neither can vote?
Currently existing? Probably.
All possibly existing? All that existed in the past compared to more democratic forms of government in their own time? No way.
Take for example the Switzerland on 1960s, where men can vote but women could not. I prefer it to modern Iran where both women and men can vote.
Singapore seems a pretty decent place to live and I have no doubt at all that if you took away the right of voting from its citizens very little if anything would change if the citizens and the international community weren’t irrationally upset over it.
sidenote: The candidates in Iran are first vetted by the all-male Guardian Council.
That’s something useful to point out. Up voted.
But I’m sure the supreme court in the Switzerland of the 1960s was all male too. Are there actually legal barriers to a woman being on the council or is it just implicit in “a woman can’t be a cleric”?
I’m sure it didn’t vet candidates, so that’s not the point. The point is in Iran candidates are vetted by a small (and also all-male) council—which makes the democracy (both male voters and female voters in Iran) significantly smaller than in 1960s Switzerland.
You are right that I missed the point. To give a different example of more vs. less democracy, I prefer 1960s Switzerland to modern Egypt.
Have you read this article by EY? It explains why merely having the right to vote does a lot for the well-being of a democracy’s citizen, as it’s a permanent plausible threat to the political class.
I read that a few months ago and updated accordingly.
I still disagreed.
The right to vote creates far more dynamics than just that, and many are not very favourable to well-being at all.