Quasi-Democracy

In a post in Mideastyouth, Omid (a Bahai author) said that "Iran is a quasi-democracy". Gary (another author) said that " I’m certainly not an expert on Iran, but I seem to recall that the government approves all candidates, rejecting those it doesn’t like. I would summarize that as simply undemocratic, basically a trick of dictators to hold onto power. Correct me if I’m wrong." Here is my comment to describe what a 'Quasi-Democracy' is:

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Intellectuals of the Iranian society are trying to push the idea of a democracy further and further, but the ordinary people are confused: they can’t understand what the ultimate solution to all the problems they have in their life is. That is why they vote for a reformist candidate (Khatami, who tried to make a more democratic situation in Iran) this year, and vote for Ahmadinejad (a full-option hardliner, upon whom people trusted to make a better economic situation) few years later.When ordinary people go with the flow of intellectuals, they make a high pressure on regime, and regime approves/allows more democratic candidates/movements. When the people are misguided by someone like Ahmadinejad, the regime gets more hardliner for it already has all the support it needs. (Keep in mind that this regime would do any necessary compromise to keep itself on power. I’ll write something about this issue and post it in mideastyouth, as soon as possible. This is a fact, though sometimes westerners may have every reason to fail to understand it).
That is a kind of Quasi-Democracy, isn’t it?