Men playing cards on Sunday morning in People’s Park, Shanghai
A work trip to China has got me thinking about what it would be like to live in a society where I never had the chance to vote. Or, rather, how a society might best be arranged if – for whatever reason – voting wasn’t on the menu. After all, from a global-historical perspective, decision-making through public votes is not the norm.
To think about this more imaginatively, I think the challenge might be to ignore what political theorists have to say on the matter. In the same way, it might be a mistake to turn to a doctor in a discussion about the big questions around health and medicine; or to a teacher if you wanted to know about the significance of education.
Pudong, Shanghai
Shanghai, 17 May 2016
robertcowley 