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“Please Vote For Me,” in trying to bring a democratic means of selection to pick the next monitor, addresses some of the large potential flaws in democracy. By using children as the subjects of the documentary the documentarian is able to witness a more complete account of the election and the way the vote is influenced. The campaigns throughout the documentary differed greatly from the initial views on democracy. Both the children and teacher frame the election process as the way to select the “best” candidate. The competitiveness that surrounds the election, however, creates a climate in which the children insult one another and seek to bribe their fellow classmates in order to gain their support. This to me in many ways had similarities to the last presidential election and has been something I’ve witnessed even in American politics. In the past presidential election the media and candidates specifically on one side leveled personal attacks at each other; and while not bribing the electorate directly, did so in the form of grandiose unrealistic promises. This climate in both American politics and the Chinese classroom election also illustrated the way in which while systems may be labeled as democratic the same individuals are seen in positions of power as seen by Luo Lei’s three-peat selection as monitor and the reappearing names in elections both in the United States and abroad.

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