(continued)
> More like a government literacy test. Like, "Who was the 16th president?" or "What are the three branches of government?"
You think that'd work? I can prove to you that it won't. In education, does a certificate prove anything? You really don't know how the person got the certificate, it could be by pure luck, it could be that he studied hard things that don't really matter to him, it could be that it was handed to him.
Who will maintain those tests? What you're asking for is a mess. I guess you want people to take the tests in every poll they want to vote? Or someone who has taken the test once can show his "certificate" and never take it again? If the former, you're going to prevent a lot of people that perhaps have an idea for the greater good to not vote, if they fail the test. Moreover, how are you going to stop people from telling others what the test questions were? If you're going to design questions for each individual that wants to vote, do you realize you'll quite soon run out of questions to ask? Not only that, but who will maintain those questions and who will be the judge for this? If the latter, how will you prevent people from cheating, by say, sharing certificates, or duplicating them, or copying them, et cetera et cetera, or bribing the guards/whoever is there to check the validity of the certificates?
> [...] I, for one, think that it would go against the concept of democracy.
Going against democracy is not necessarily a bad thing. Democracy is not the best thing humanity ever conceived. It's not that it's undesirable to go against democracy, it's that what >>1 suggested simply won't work any better than what we have now.
> If you think about it, in most countries the ignorants are a majority,
In fact I'd say that in all countries the ignoramus are a majority. If anyone must be blamed, it's the governments that don't fix education. Why should they, anyway? If education is fixed, it's possible that the people will try to overthrow the government and get ruled by some other nation -- possibly violently. Is that desirable in the political game? No. It's an almost pointless act. I'd rather have individuals realize that they must educate themselves in order to receive proper education, than have this.
> And there's always the risk of people feeling their rights are being violated, and that's a whole different story.
Our rights are being violated non-stop, period.
> While a great idea, this is why I think it would be rather impractical.
In fact, it is not a great idea. If something does not work, how is it a great idea?
>>11 has a better attitude. Stronger helping the weaker, et cetera.
tl;dr what >>1 suggests won't work.