Please Vote For Me Analysis

The Independent Lens film, Please Vote for Me, is a compelling documentary featuring the third grade class at the Evergreen Primary School, located in the communist country of China. It presents the faculty’s attempt at educating their students about democracy, and as such, we witness three children through their journey of the electoral process for the coveted position of the Class Monitor (Chen, 2007). In general, the version of democracy depicted in the film falls within its minimalist definition as defined by Schumpeter (1948). That is to say, the students were granted the opportunity to freely cast their votes after witnessing a competitive election, albeit their interpretation of “free” and “competitive” might be debatable.

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For example, the selection of the three candidates appears to have occurred without solicitation from the candidates themselves. Moreover, they were given the freedom to select their campaign assistants with the caveat that they were limited to a total of two peers to fill these roles (Chen, 2007). Furthermore, the three mandatory candidates were products of influential families. As such, their parents played active roles in shepherding their children through the electoral process, exceedingly intent on victory. To be sure, Cheng Cheng is the son of a television producer, Luo Lei is the son of the Director of the Police department, and Xu Xiaofei is the daughter of school faculty (Chen, 2007). Examples of the parental intervention in the film are Cheng Cheng’s step-father writing the lion’s share of Cheng’s final speech, as well as the facilitation of a class field trip to the monorail by Luo Lei’s father, as a means of “impressing” Luo’s classmates (Chen, 2007, 22:23). Additionally, the audience learns midway through the film that Luo Lei is the incumbent Class Monitor (Chen, 2007, 25:55). Indeed, Luo Lei relies heavily on using propaganda and intimidation as a means to secure votes resulting in retention of his position. Perhaps the faculty’s choice of Luo Lei as the Class Monitor for the previous two years stems from his social hierarchical