Analyzing the portrayal of democracy in “Please Vote For Me” can be done with respect to either democracy in theory or in practice. As far as the former, on the surface, the third graders’ classroom’s version of democracy follows Dahl’s criteria: the election of officials, the right to vote, the right to run for office, the right to express themselves for all. However, the students are unable to fully achieve democracy due to a lack of appreciation for all the details of the democratic process, or democracy in practice. Specifically, as Schimitter and Karl argue, fairly conducted elections are crucial to democracy, and while there was indeed competition between the three students, bribery plays a role in giving the votes to Luo Lei. Neither were elected officials being held accountable for their actions: the students do not utilize their right to confront Luo Lei’s authoritarian manner. Also, Schmitter and Karl emphasize deliberation between the people as important to the democratic process, and the film doesn’t emphasize the students taking part in this (aside from interactions directly with the nominees who tried to sway them). The lack of these conversations could potentially be due to an apathy on the part of the students, a lack of caring that effectively destroys democracy as it removes the role of the citizens. Perhaps too however, the expectation of these students to practice democracy in their classroom is too great. In their setting, the students face two extremes with respect to social order: discipline outside the classroom and disorder within it. As far as the liberal democracy argument, the students must achieve order in the classroom (not the chaos of bullying one minute and everyone crying the next) before they can establish democracy. And ultimately, without knowing the terms associated with government (ie. vote, dictator, manager), they lack the insight about politics in general.