Afghanistan, Cook County
Afghanistan goes to the polls next week. According to the NYTimes, it's not going to be the cleanest election ever:
How much does it cost to buy an Afghan vote?
Saturday’s parliamentary elections offer a unique opportunity to ascertain that price — and it is in theory a market with many buyers, as 2,500 candidates scramble for only 249 seats. Afghanistan may be a feudal society in many ways, but it is very much capitalist feudalism (as the Soviets found out to their regret).
Nonetheless, prices are low. In northern Kunduz Province, Afghan votes cost $15 each; in eastern Ghazni Province, a vote can be bought for $18. In Kandahar, they sell their rights for as little as $1 a ballot. More commonly, the price seems to hover in the $5 to $6 range, as quoted to New York Times reporters in places like Helmand and Khost Provinces.
And yet, there's something darkly refreshing about the honesty. Compare it, for example, to the Byzantine corruption of Chicagoland:
Cook County has been a "dark pool of political corruption" for more than a century, a new study by the University of Illinois at Chicago says.
Nearly 150 employees, politicians and contractors in the nation's second-largest county have been convicted on corruption charges since 1957, according to a report released Thursday by the university and the Better Government Association (.pdf)
The 33-page study gives a history of corruption, starting from 1869 when county commissioners were jailed for rigging a bid to paint City Hall. It also details hiring scandals, including some under Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Stroger hasn't been charged with any crime.
In the last 36 years, 31 sitting or former Chicago alderman have been convicted of corruption or other crimes. The last was Ike Carothers (29th), who earlier this month plead guilty to charges he accepted gifts in exchange for his votes on zoning issues.
So here's the question: are things in Kabul getting better or worse? And what about Cook County?
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Jul '10
Re: Afghanistan, Cook County
So this is why we expended - and continue to expend - so much blood and treasure? So that 7th century barbarians can sell their precious new democracy for the price of a burger and fries at the Kandahar Dave n' Busters?
Jul '10
Re: Afghanistan, Cook County
Kenneth, tell me, how much DOES a burger and fries cost in Kandahar?
Aug '10
Re: Afghanistan, Cook County
As 21st century Americans, we are under the comfortable illusion that voting your sincere and reasoned policy preferences is normal. We assume that we, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, etc. are normal with caudilloism and machine politics being some kind of aberration. Unfortunately this is backwards and clientalism is actually typical of democracies. For instance here's a paper (which I saw linked at Andrew Gelman's blog) that describes a sophisticated market for votes in Lebanon.
The founders (who had all read their Greco-Roman classics) knew this, which is why they insisted on structural features to limit democracy. This includes both things that we still admire (checks and balances) and things we find embarrassing (property qualifications). The founders would have been pleasantly surprised (or in the case of Aaron Burr, disappointed) that eventually the vast majority of Americans would develop an almost religious civic virtue about the sacred ballot and never dream of selling it.
Jul '10
Re: Afghanistan, Cook County
$7.95 at Dave n' Busters.
At the Kabul Hooters, it'll cost you a buck more, but you get a side of cole slaw.
May '10
Re: Afghanistan, Cook County
This is the Chicago style politics that everyone always talks about. I think we should be wary of politicians who come out of this scene.
Jun '10
Re: Afghanistan, Cook County
Anybody that doesn't believe in resurrection, has never worked a Chicago election.
Re: Afghanistan, Cook County
Rob, as a proud Chicagoan, I take umbrage at any suggestion there is a political entity in the world that can hold a candle to my city's record of corruption. As far back as the early 1960s, my family and our neighbors were paid $20 for their vote. As one Windy City precinct worker said to the other when the latter was unable to read the name on an aging tombstone, in order to add it to the voter rolls, "C'mon, try harder. After all, everyone's entitled to a vote."