On 28 May 2001, at 22:57, John D. Giorgis wrote:
> 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.
They were a one-party state for some 20 years, not since the late
70's though. And Presidents serve 6 year terms. A lot of domestic
matters ARE handled by their lower chambers as are things like
taxes.
Andy
Dawn Falcon
