MetaFilter posts tagged with Iran and democracy

Obama's Iran Policy

homunculus — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:08:14 -0800

The Making of an Iran Policy: Inside the Obama administration’s struggle with its biggest diplomatic challenge.

in a democracy, the ordinary citizen is effectively a king, but a king in a constitutional democracy, a king whose decisions are merely formal

blasdelf — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:23:51 -0800

Berlusconi in Tehran by Slavoj Žižek in the London Review of Books

I have here in my hand a list...

msalt — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:53:59 -0800

40 million Iranians watched a "remarkable, no-holds-barred" and nationally televised debate between President Ahmadinejad (blog) and his rival, former Prime Minister Mousavi (Facebook). Mousavi said Ahmadinejad was moving toward dictatorship, and that his Holocaust denial had hurt Iran's dignity; the President said Mousavi had conspired with former presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Khatami against him. Ahmadinejad then pulled out a dossier on Mousavi's wife, saying she didn't have proper qualifications for graduate school. Mousavi replied "This is typical of your government. Instead of finding solutions, you send your deputies to make files on the people." The election is June 12th. There will be several more debates among other candidates including Ahmadinejad, Mohsen Rezai and Mehdi Karroubi . This all raises the bigger question: how democratic is Iran? Radio Free Europe says "Less than Iraq." DilbertBlog says "As much as America is." The Guardian says "Complicated."

John McCain and democracy

shetterly — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:56:09 -0800

John McCain served on the advisory board to the U.S. chapter of an international group linked to ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America in the 1980s. As the head of the IRI, he helped finance coups against democratic governments in Haiti and Venezuela. Were those governments fairly elected? The 1984 elections were perhaps the freest and fairest in Nicaraguan history. Aristide...won the first free and fair election in the country’s history with 67 percent of the vote. In Venezuela, all of Chavez's victories in elections were monitored and certified by a variety of observers including the Organization of American States, the European Union and the Carter Center.

Persia

homunculus — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:05:12 -0800

Persia: Ancient Soul of Iran. "A glorious past inspires a conflicted nation."

Mapping Iran's Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere.

chunking express — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:42:41 -0800

Mapping Iran's Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere. From the abstract:

We used computational social network mapping in combination with human and automated content analysis to analyze the Iranian blogosphere. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that Iranian bloggers are mainly young democrats critical of the regime, we found a wide range of opinions representing religious conservative points of view as well as secular and reform-minded ones, and topics ranging from politics and human rights to poetry, religion, and pop culture. Our research indicates that the Persian blogosphere is indeed a large discussion space of approximately 60,000 routinely updated blogs featuring a rich and varied mix of bloggers. Social network analysis reveals the Iranian blogosphere to be dominated by four major network formations, or poles, with identifiable sub-clusters of bloggers within those poles. We label the poles as 1) Secular/Reformist, 2) Conservative/Religious, 3) Persian Poetry and Literature, and 4) Mixed Networks.

Iran: the hidden power

Abiezer — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 19:35:37 -0800

The war in Iran has already begun. "Iran's leadership proclaims its confidence and ambition but it draws power from a western threat that enables it to target and crush grassroots protest." Opinion and analysis from the authors of Iran on the Brink.

U.S. suffocating reform in Iran?

homunculus — Thu, 06 Feb 2003 09:50:26 -0800

Is the U.S. suffocating reform in Iran? "'Despite sporadic verbal concern with the condition of human rights in Iran, the U.S. is protecting and providing clandestine support to the right-wing conservatives in Iran,' says Sayed Ali Asghar Gharavi, a member of the banned but tolerated Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), the country’s leading opposition party. 'The U.S. government in no way favors the coming to power of the reformist groups in Iran and is secretly supporting the religious conservatives.' Government insiders in Iran allege that the deal, first proffered by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, is simple: If the hard-liners quietly support the United States in Iraq, Washington will quietly support them. U.S. State Department officials declined to comment." It seems unlikely that the Bush administration would side with the mullahs, but considering the U.S.'s troubled history with Iranian democracy, it's not inconceivable. Perhaps this is why Michael Ledeen's cries of alarm aren't being heeded.