Hi Thomas,

>>If you really dive into this you'll see that dictatorship and democracies are far less apart than theory will tell you. A pure democracy does not exist (Switzerland come closest AFAIK), because the government still decides what is going to happen. The fact that democracies have elections does not mean citizens have a direct influence on what is decided. So in a sense those democracies can be viewed as a collective dictatorship with the possibility of getting rid of it on the next election.

>Yes, a dictatorship does not have elections. I agree that democracies in their many forms are similar to a dictatorship. I believe the one difference is my right to vote. I consider that to be my passive right of revolution. One man – one vote. It sure beats killing everyone to get my way! :)

Yes, your right to vote is a difference, but how to value the right to vote is a different matter though. A client, who has lived for many years in india said the following:

In india they say they have a democracy, but what you see what happens is that parties will pay poor people from outside of the city to demonstrate against or for a particular cause. They themselves do not have a clue what they are demonstrating for. They just do what they get paid for.

Now of course we have seen this happen before in iraq under saddam hussain, and this of course is also the danger of giving everyone the right to vote, even if they do not have a clue what they vote for. I do remember that in iran there was a proposal (I don't know actually if it made it or not) to only grant someone with a degree to vote, in order to be ensured they know what they are voting for. Of course this not an ideal situation either, but as I said esspecially in countries where most people are not 'smart' enough to know exactly what they are voting for you have a significant change the voting is not about the political content but in stead one of propoganda on irrational basis.


In this light there might be little difference between a dictator and a democratic choosen leader. The dictator gains power with the military power, while the democratic one gains power with bribe and corruption. Choose your favourate.... (hint: examine african politics).

Walter,