At 12:44 AM 3/10/2003 -0000 Alberto Monteiro wrote:
>Ok, why not Venezuela? Even if you consider Chavez a dictatorial type,
>he is still the elected power in Venezuela, and, if nothing weird happens,
>he will pass the power to the next elected power in a few months.
>
>[BTW: neither Argentina nor Paraguay are currently being ruled
>by an elected president: the elected president was either deposed
>by the constitutional rules or resigned]
Venezuela would be an admittedly tough call.... as would be including the
Phillipines (unelected leader) and not including Russia (elected
leader)..... but I think that for such an organization to work, it would
have to err on the side of caution, not of inclusion. Russia can't really
be called a democracy until it truly has an opposition, and the opposition
succeeds in getting elected. (This will probably eliminate a few other
candidates I "included" originally - but that was more of an outline,
really, than anything.)
What I'm driving at is that elections do not make the democracy. They are
merely one characteristic among many, and it is the existance of a sizable
plurality of these characteristics that makes a democracy. In other
words, identifying democracy is a bit more art than logic.
Of course, this whole point is moot, because if it was ever proposed to
basically make the UN Security Council irrelevant in such a way, then China
would throw the mother of all hissy-fits.... and no doubt a great many
people would start getting cold feet.
JDG
_______________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
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