Do Thais Understand Democracy?

[thaibebop]

Americans obviously don't. I was watching a show today where one of the congressmen admitted that during the Presidential Election only 50% of Americans voted. And they winge about Obama being elected. He also stated that when they have local elections that only about 20% on average vote for their local candidate.

I agree with you some what. There are problems in the election system here that convince many people that voting is a waste of time. One is the electoral college, which is a system of voting that determines how the entire state votes. Example, I live in Kansas which is mostly populated by conservative right wing Christians. Because of that the state will always vote for the Republican running. If voted Democrat it would wiped out by my neighbors and the state would go to the Republican candidate. This is the same for a person voting Republican in a mostly left wing state. So, an individuals vote only counts, in the national election, at the state level. It is not one vote, one person. This is also true for state level elections as well, only the vote counts at the county level.

So, you see many times depending on who you live next to, your vote doesn't mean anything. If you live in a state that votes the way you want, one less person voting isn't going to matter much either. So, why bother? There are other problems as well that Americans need to address before we can fix our government. I tell you now though, our government is not working as it should for the people. The system has been geared to favor the political parties and not the voters. So, until something like campaign reform takes place, many Americans will have no faith in the voting system.

All Australian citizens on reaching 18 YOA must vote. I repeat ALL. If they don't vote and don't have a good excuse they are fined and that is in Commonwealth and State elections.

What's your point? If even vote counts than great, vote. However, as I explained an Americans vote can be rubbed out, depending on how the rest of their district votes. So, the vote doesn't count. What then is the point? You have to win your district for your vote to count, which you could be pretty sure of before the voting even starts, just by looking at demographic polls.

[thaibebop]

this is an uprising from the people who want a democratic republic of thaisland

What about it isn't? I have heard that PAD won't accept Abhisit's win but on what grounds? How was his election rigged? Many in America believe that President Obama shouldn't be President and they base it on him not being an American citizen. They demand that his birth certificate be produced to prove whether or not he is. Now, this may be a ridiculous claim, but the claim is a clear one, instead of they just don't like him and didn't want him to win.

[way2muchcoffee]

Thailand is just going through some democratic teething problems as most western countries also have.

The difficult bit always seems to be the shifting of power from the wealthy to the poor.

Accepting the results from a General Election would be a step in the right direction.

Making sure military coupes cannot happen in the future will save hel_l of a lot of time.

The most important issue is of course having a solid and fair legal system which I am not sure is possible.

Until then I guess we gotta make do with what we got.

Finally. I agree completely with one of your posts Monkfish. There is some common ground after all.