Yes. “Elections are necessary but not sufficient for a democratic republic. You also need limits on state power, and civil society. Frankly, what’s most impressive to me is how resilient and robust Egyptian civil society has been in the face of the Muslim Brotherhood’s clear effort to establish an Iran-style theocracy.”
I’d also add that a republic (which per Franklin’s famous statement after the convention, we have, or at least had until the last few decades) is not a democracy, either.
I’ve been amazed at how calm the Egyptian Army / Reserves have been. They allowed Morsi / the MB to dig a HUGE hole for themselves, while repeatedly asking them to remember the peoples rights.
And more than anything, when they took Morsi out of power, they showed that they didn’t want to run the country, nor did they want to be judge and jury over the actions OF Morsi / the MB.
Perhaps we should invite the Egyptian army to visit here?
TLDR version: politics is downstream of culture, elections are a great way to find the most power hungry people in your society.
One day, people will figure out that politicians serve no useful function, and do something about it.
Could we make the same argument about constitutions as elections? They are necessary to proscribe limits on government, but not sufficient.
What then creates the limits?
Good for Egypt’s army, I suppose, but…