Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

Here are examples of some countries that I think introduced universal suffrage too early on, and probably would have developed better with an alternative system:

Philippines
India
Indonesia
Most of South America (excluding Chile, I think Chile got it right)
Most of Africa
Iraq (through no fault of their own)


For examples of countries without universal suffrage that would be worse off with it at their current stage of development:

Russia
Vietnam
China


Some countries that would do better with suffrage:

Singapore


imo
I don't really have a strong opinion on this either way, so feel free to say whatever you think!

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

Compared to what? What do you think they should have had instead on universal sufferage?

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
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?"

[/ QUOTE ]

An overview of how 45 "democratic" countries regulate voting for felons. here
19 have no voting restrictions on felons, permitting them to vote while in prison or jail
13 have selective voting restrictions, banning voting for felons based upon various criteria
11 have a complete ban on inmate voting (voting while in prison or jail)
6 have some type of voting disenfranchisement for felons after their release from prison or jail

"Eighteen European democracies permit incarcerated prisoners to vote, as do Canada and Puerto Rico. In the U.S., only the states of Maine and Vermont do so. No democracy other than the United States bars parolees from voting." link

22.4% of America's 5.26 million disenfranchised felons are in Florida. If disenfranchised felons in Florida had been permitted to vote, Gore would certainly have carried the state, and the election in 2000.

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]

22.4% of America's 5.26 million disenfranchised felons are in Florida.

[/ QUOTE ]

The website you linked doesn't list Florida as banning ex-felons from voting. Is that in error?

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

22.4% of America's 5.26 million disenfranchised felons are in Florida.

[/ QUOTE ]

The website you linked doesn't list Florida as banning ex-felons from voting. Is that in error?

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you know? link. here [i]

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

On a realistic note, the universal suffrage should be limited to democrats, at least for a while, in the US! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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 ]

Yeah, I agree completely, however, I didn't mean for it to be a test that made it any less hard to vote if you are poor or a minority. I feel that if we are going to let regular people vote to put people in place who will control what this country does, I think it might me a good idea to try to ensure that those people voting have, at least, some idea where this country has been and how it began.

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 ]

We didn't try "that", we tried the rest of what you described and called it Literacy tests.

[ QUOTE ]

The problem with the OPs suggestion is that people tend to vote their own interests no matter how uneducated they are. I think a good example of this is laws restricting teenage driving. If politicians get wind that a certain category of people can't hurt them at the ballot box, the mind they pay their interests pretty much goes to zero.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can see several good things with politicians not pandering to people who fail this test.

Note that I don't think this test should become implemented, but in theory it is a good idea.

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ 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 ]

We didn't try "that", we tried the rest of what you described and called it Literacy tests.

[ QUOTE ]

The problem with the OPs suggestion is that people tend to vote their own interests no matter how uneducated they are. I think a good example of this is laws restricting teenage driving. If politicians get wind that a certain category of people can't hurt them at the ballot box, the mind they pay their interests pretty much goes to zero.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can see several good things with politicians not pandering to people who fail this test.

Note that I don't think this test should become implemented, but in theory it is a good idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

So it's a good idea to disenfranchise people who don't meet your subjective criteria of smartness? Sounds awesome to me.

Re: Prerequisites for universal suffrage
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

22.4% of America's 5.26 million disenfranchised felons are in Florida.

[/ QUOTE ]

The website you linked doesn't list Florida as banning ex-felons from voting. Is that in error?

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you know? link. here

[/ QUOTE ]

But I'm not quite understanding how they are counting the 950,000 ex-felons as being unable to vote, when on the other link on their page, it doesn't show Florida as a state that doesn't allow ex-felons to vote.

They attribute almost 50% of all the disenfranchised ex-felons in the entire country to being in Florida, yet on their own site they say that Florida doesn't prevent ex-felons from voting. Something doesn't jive.