Saturday, April 18, 2009

Not Convinced by Elections

According to the government's own survey, two thirds of Mexicans don't believe the elections here are clean. This despite the fact that 71 percent expressed confidence in the IFE. Also, more than half said they were only somewhat or not at all satisfied by democracy. Only 55 percent said that democracy was preferable to all other forms of government. 

As distressing as this may sound, I don't think it's cause for much alarm. Stating broadly that "elections aren't clean" doesn't necessarily mean that you have no faith in the electoral process, but rather that you believe that somewhere in the country, electoral shenanigans persist. I tend to think that complaints against democracy are a lot less meaningful in the abstract, rather than, I would prefer autocracy to democracy. One other striking stat: 59 percent said they wouldn't be willing to sacrifice personal freedoms for a life without economic pressure. 

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