In my opinion, the most disturbing part of the entire documentary is the involvement of the candidates’ parents. More specifically, it was Cheng Cheng’s mother and Luo Lei’s father who shocked me. Both of these parents instructed their children to fight dirty by using insults and negative campaign strategies. I particularly found it interesting that the parents were so blatant and open about the questionable methods they were instructing their sons to use. As disturbing as this was, it does not seem all that different from smear campaigns that are run in the US prior to elections. Many of the TV and internet ads for candidates recently seem to harp on the flaws of the opponent rather than highlight assets or positive changes the candidate who is running the ad wants to make. As far as this classroom election being democratic, I’m torn. I think it is important to note that the documentary does not explain how these 3 children were originally chosen to be candidates. In Luo Lei’s case, he can be seen as the incumbent, as he has previously been the class monitor, but there is no mention of how the other two were selected. If it was the case that the rest of the class had no say in who these candidates would be and it was just arbitrarily chosen by the teacher, then that seems undemocratic to me. On the other hand, there was no coercion as the children actually cast their ballots, so they were free to pick their top choice in that sense. It seems apparent, though, that the children did not fully understand “democracy” or the free voting process, and I wonder if the mob mentality played a role, as Luo Lei captured a landslide victory. The minds of the children seemed to be easily changed and their loyalty jumped from candidate to candidate, so it could be the case that they voted for the popular or familiar choice rather than the candidate they actually most strongly agreed with due to their young age and impressionable nature.
Introduction to Comparative Politics: Nationalism, Ideology, and State Power
Professor Shervin Malekzadeh
Your take on the parenting is extremely interesting–I, too, agree that it was probably the most haunting part of the documentary. In respect to Machiavelli, I began to question who is really in control. The children, especially Cheng Cheng and Luo Lei, seem to be facilitators of their parents wishes. They begin to fight dirty because their parents instruct them too. In fact, in the beginning of the documentary, Luo Lei even says,”I don’t want to control others, they should think for themselves.” He says this when he dismisses his parent’s first attempts of intervening. Luo Lei’s campaign becomes malicious once his parents intervene. This begs the question: who is really in control? Machiavelli would argue that Luo Lei’s parents are actually in control–they are the ones pulling the strings and determining Luo Lei’s actions as the class monitor.
Posted this without my name the first time, sorry!
I also found the involvement of the children’s parents in this to be disturbing. The parents clearly cared more than their kids, especially in the beginning. It was as if they wanted to vicariously live through their children in fighting for this spot in the classroom. I think it was disturbing because they were pushing their kids to do things that we think make politicians (usually old, white men) bad people and the kids doing these analogous things were maybe 8 years old. You are also right that it is hard for this to be democratic because the children running and participating in this election do not fully understand what democracy is. However, I think this also represents how much a decent percentage of the US population knows about politics and democracy.
I also found the involvement of the children’s parents in this to be disturbing. The parents clearly cared more than their kids, especially in the beginning. It was as if they wanted to vicariously live through their children in fighting for this spot in the classroom. I think it was disturbing because they were pushing their kids to do things that we think make politicians (usually old, white men) bad people and the kids doing these analogous things were maybe 8 years old. You are also right that it is hard for this to be democratic because the children running and participating in this election do not fully understand what democracy is. However, I think this also represents how much a decent percentage of the US population knows about politics and democracy.