Who would you vote for in these countries?

[minionofmidas]

Japan - Democrats
South Korea - don't know about names of their parties...something with anti-dictatorship roots
Denmark - Socialist People's Party
Austria - Greens
Switzerland - depends on canton. Something with a chance to win a seat in the smaller ones. Splitting my vote in the larger ones, with Greens, SPS and fringe candidates getting votes
Sweden - Green or Commie
Norway - Er...are there Greens? Are there Commies? I think there are, but I'm not sure.
Finland - Green or Commie
Russia - Illegal Emigration
Luxembourg - Green
Netherlands - Socialist or Green Left. Not D'66 anymore.
Belgium - Greens
Mexico - PRD
Nepal - Whoever pays me most
India - Depends on Constituency. Samajwadi where they stand a chance and where the candidate isn't too much of a scumbag
South Africa - ANC or splinter group
East Timor - ?
Venezuela - Rather not Chaves. Certainly not any of the major opposition groups.
Brazil - Worker's Party

[minionofmidas]

How about the King, what are his stances? Any chance of a monarchist coup like in Iran? Note that I like the previous Iranian Prime Minister far more than the Shah, but considering what replaced him, I think the Shah is a great hero now. Of course I wouldn't supported his overthrow at the time, but I would've just made the same error as Jimmy Carter, lacking hindsight.

Actually, it makes slightly more sense (but not much) to claim that, considering what was before him, Ayatollah Khomeini is a great hero now.

[minionofmidas]

Do you mean Khataemi or whatever the guy in charge now's name is?

I see the difference as that the Shah tried to westernize and secularize Iran, allowing liquor sales and giving women the right to vote.

Right to vote? In the Shah's Iran?

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Iran would never have become a Democracy without an overthrow of the Shah's extremely brutal military regime (which banned wearing the Chador btw, then the most common women's garment in Iran), which gave none of its oil millions back to the people. Iran is a democracy now...sort of...well, not really...but more so than under the Shah. And it's the only country in the world where the right to vote begins at 15.

[minionofmidas]

What happened was the worst case scenario.

No. Not in the pre-1989 world. Back then any successful overthrow of that outcrop of the abyss would have had to be wildly anti-American. And violent. And an unholy alliance of Leftists and Islamists.
And  it's hard to picture the more secular democratic groups keeping power...condidering the - inevitable - international reaction...as well as the fact that their popular support was smaller than the Islamists'...then there was the prompt attack by one of the world's most militantly anti-Islamic governments...
Best I can picture, pre-89, is Khomeini sans the horrible mass executions. Most Iranian exiles will say the same, incidentally.

Now, after 1989 the West has been much more interested in introducing Democracy in the third world...so a better scenario is possible...but I look at Saudi Arabia and I don't think it would have happened.
And no, I don't think Iran now is worse than Saudi Arabia now...and I don't think many Iranians think that either, actually.

Incidentally, the whole history of Iraq over the last twenty-five years would turn out miraculously different without the Iranian Revolution. The US might never have gone to war there. It's very hard to tell what would have happened exactly, though.