At 12:09 AM 5/29/01 +0100 Andrew Crystall wrote:
>Only one democracy has even declared war on another
>Democracy. Israel.
Assuming, of course, that you consider Egypt a democracy - which I find
difficult to accept sometimes. In fact, I think that were it not for
Egypt's rather peculiar relationship with Israel, I don't think we really
would consider it a democracy. But, Egypt made peace with Israel, and so
we 're rather indulgent.
Anyhow, Egypt's Constitution is an absolute joke (completely unenforced),
its political opposition is non-existant, and most importantly, its
Presidents essentially serve until death. In the sense that its primary
institution of political power is a single individual who basically serves
until death, I think that Egypt does *not* meet the standard of a modern
democracy.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"The point of living in a Republic after all, is that we do not live by
majority rule. We live by laws and a variety of institutions designed
to check each other." -Andrew Sullivan 01/29/01
