Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]

What do you think is the minimum educational requirement for it to be, on balance, a better thing for a country than alternative methods of government?

[/ QUOTE ] None.

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
We tried that. They were called literacy tests and they were part and parcel with Jim Crow as a way to keep black people poor and disenfranchised and thus unrepresented.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not to mention the poll tax, which was geared to curtail voting by blacks, while whites would get to vote for free by virtue of the 'grandfather clause'.

The tax circa 1900 was about $40-$60, in todays dollars.

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
There should be some sort of test people had to take to be able to qualify for voting. Like a civics test of some sort. I wonder what kind of effect the implementation of a test, especially if it was hard, would have on politics in this country?

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd see a lot of this:
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6733/trfb8.gif

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

How can you have a prerequisite for "universal" suffrage and why would anyone ever want it? To my knowledge it doesn't exist and I am skeptical that it ever will. I think what you are really wanting to know is something along the lines of, "What ought to be the standards a society holds for allowing a member a say in how it is run?"

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

That's right, volkin. That's the question I was asking but I phrased it badly. What education or maturity or whatever you want... what sort of things does a society need before universal suffrage is important?

I have run some simulations, and they say that universal suffrage shouldn't be adopted early in a society's life. For that, it is much better to have hereditary rule or representation, depending on how the society is set up.

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

What were the simulations?

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
What were the simulations?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is probably what he was referring to.

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
There should be some sort of test people had to take to be able to qualify for voting. Like a civics test of some sort. I wonder what kind of effect the implementation of a test, especially if it was hard, would have on politics in this country?

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd see a lot of this:
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6733/trfb8.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, that's great. Do you have one with a kid saying "THIS EFFECTIVELY DISENFRANCHISES OUR COUNTRY'S POOR AND MINORITY POPULATIONS"?

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
what sort of things does a society need before universal suffrage is important?

[/ QUOTE ]

Strong cultural and institutional respect for the rule of law, for one. Voting doesn't really get you anything if the elected officials can do whatever they want once in power.

That's the only thing that comes to mind as necessary, but there are probably others.

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
There should be some sort of test people had to take to be able to qualify for voting. Like a civics test of some sort. I wonder what kind of effect the implementation of a test, especially if it was hard, would have on politics in this country?

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd see a lot of this:
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6733/trfb8.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, that's great. Do you have one with a kid saying "THIS EFFECTIVELY DISENFRANCHISES OUR COUNTRY'S POOR AND MINORITY POPULATIONS"?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure he posted that tongue-in-cheek.