The Messy Business of Democracy

Juan Cole has an excellent post about the growth of democracy in two Muslim-majority countries (Turkey and Indonesia). While both countries have their very serious problems (lurking authoritarians, bad record on treatment of minorities) they are quietly achieving free and open societies. It is worth remembering that the attainment of our current forms of government in the West required a great deal of struggle and many setbacks. The point is though that this kind of reform seems to work best when people are given the chance to do it themselves. Go read the whole post, perhaps a little optimism for the new year.

How to win votes and alienate people

Impolitical reminds us today of the silliness that Harper engaged in over veiled voters. What this reminded me of was how it occurred to me that I could have easily committed electoral fraud this last election (note to law enforcement types: this is strictly hypothetical and in no way tested or endorsed by me). I moved between elections, something I suspect that thousands of voters do. The way voters lists are done now means that I would have still been on the list in my old riding, being a lazy git, I didn't make any move to add myself to the voters list in my new riding till the day of the election. I could have voted in my old riding (my name surely would have been on the list) and as far as I can tell, showed up at my new riding and done likewise. How did I prove my address? My cable bill. Yes, that's right, it was the only thing I had at the time that had my new address.

Now, again I'm not an expert, but I suspect that it would be cheaper to run off a bunch of cable bills with local addresses or something than it would be to invest in all kinds of niqabs. Electoral fraud is of course a Very Bad Thing if you agree with democracy and/or the rule of law, but my goodness, the idea that veils would be the only tool for it is, well, a bit silly. Anyone who wants to commit electoral fraud can probably do so (though I suspect the penalties if you are caught are unpleasant) without any kind of veil. But then you don't get many votes with those who bellow about Islamofascism, do you?

Eric Margolis asks a question

This stood out to me:

"Blaming every violent incident on the shadowy al-Qaida is a handy excuse for avoiding reality and responsibility. But it won’t change the fact that a good 20% of the world’s population is increasingly enraged at the US, Britain, Australia and, most lately, Canada. How can we hector the Muslim World to cease its acts of violence when we westerners continue to intensify our own?"

This is though one of those cases where the whole article is worth reading. Actually I've been meaning to pick up Margolis' War at the Top of the World, if it's anything like his columns, it's probably worth reading.