Slaves did not go to school. Women did not go to school but some how they taught their sons how to read. Might be the gene of determination...
Slaves didn't vote and going to school has nothing to do with being literate or even educated.
It is a double edge sword if you educate your population they will want things you don't want. However, if you do educate your population then your country will become a supper power, maybe number 1. This is the dilemma China faces.
You realize that our founders were pretty big on the education of the population and so were the citizens. We did not have the same rising peasant class that Europe had. Most of the people who came here were educated at least to the point of reading, writing, and numbers. Chinas issue is not with education. They control that. They have and have had a literate population. China is struggling with how to compete in free markets and still control its people while encouraging innovation. They are creating a middle class and totalitarianism does not survive a middle class.
otal propaganda... Mike has already admitted that it wouldn't make a difference and he is right.
Where do the majority of people live? what are the political leanings of the people in those areas?
Once money and corruption is out of the equation it won't make a difference. Re-registration might weed out the illiterates. Actually, I have no problem with giving a literary test as a qualification to vote.
How do you think you get money and corruption out of the equation by changing to a popular vote? Is there no corruption in state voting? That is done by popular vote. Do you think there are no backroom deals, or fraud in state systems?
I do not need to know what novels people have read for them to vote. Literacy tests, on the other hand, have already been thrown out by the courts.