It Depends on What You Mean by Democracy

Democracy is looking sick just now. At the start of 2008, Churchill's nostrum that it is the worst form of government "except for the others" is being tested close to destruction, assassinated in Pakistan, sabotaged in Kenya, massacred in Iraq, strangled in Russia, ridiculed in South Africa and purchased in America. But then it depends on what you mean by democracy.

This week the "better" democracies are wagging fingers at worse ones like 17th-century Popes reprimanding missionaries in the distant jungle. They tut-tut over a stuffed ballot box in Nairobi, a banned radio station in Islamabad or a murdered journalist in Moscow. They condemn a riot here, a bombed polling booth there and an imprisoned politician somewhere else. How dare these "developing" peoples corrupt the sacred rites of mother church?

The British government is peculiarly unable to resist such finger-wagging. While Tories long to rule a better Britain, the Blair/Brown Labour party longs to rule a better world. Last month the foreign secretary, David Miliband, told Pakistan's prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, "what actions we expect his government to take." Last weekend, Gordon Brown telephoned president Pervez Musharraf to explain to him "the need to push ahead with the democratic process and to avoid any significant delay in the electoral timetable." He added that Britain expected Pakistan's elections to be "free, fair and secure."

On the other phone line Brown had the benighted rulers of Kenya, another of Kipling's "lesser breeds without the law" needing instruction in the democratic catechism. He professed himself "appalled" at events in that country and "would be talking to the various parties... to see talks between them," apparently unaware that Kenya is no longer part of the British Empire. The British commanded Kenyans to "behave responsibly".

If I had been Musharraf in receipt of such patronising remarks, I would have drawn deep from the well of irony. I would have referred Britain's prime minister to his poor poll rating and said Islamabad was "dismayed" he had funked a democratic mandate last October. I would have expressed Pakistan's disappointment at Brown's record on habeas corpus, ID cards and the exploitation of Pakistani doctors by the NHS.

One peep from Brown about the Taliban and I would have pointed out that it was his drugs policy that underpinned the world price of heroin and thus subsidised the Taliban, among other things, to kill Benazir Bhutto. As for protecting elected politicians, I would inquire into the life expectancy of those in British-controlled south Iraq. And Britain's war in Helmand had about as much to do with democracy as Pissarro's conquest of Peru had to do with Christianity.

Democracy has never been perfect. From the moment self-government lost touch with "self" -- departing the agora of Athens, the 'althing' of Reykyavik and the town meeting of New England -- it adapted itself to nations and peoples. Its institutions depend more on local history, culture and geography than on Madison, Mill and de Tocqueville. This week the rituals of heredity, not democracy, decided the leadership of Pakistan's PPP. Most Asian and African democracies are ballots qualified by assassination, corruption and inheritance. Yet we still grace them with the term.

Students of politics are taught to tick off the qualities that award the status of democracy to a polity. Are there free and fair elections? Can the franchise turn a regime out of office? Are there supporting institutions such as an open parliament, security of public assembly, elected local government, a free media, the rule of law? No one of these is either sufficient or necessary for democracy, which is rather a sliding scale of liberties, to which constitutions and regimes ascribe varying degrees of priority.

It is thus presumptuous for the post-imperial west to demand that the world take the same route to self-government that it spent blood-thirsty centuries pursuing. We may regard liberal democracy as the one true religion, but it is doubtful if many Russians or Chinese do likewise at present. Like many places on Earth, they give a higher rating to security and prosperity.

We are not so clean that we can lecture others on how they should govern themselves, especially those whom the west has polluted with aid, debt, trade curbs and wars along their borders. Democracy in Pakistan and Kenya may be looking violently unwell at present, but western democracy too is qualified by the corruption of party lists, eccentric primaries and electoral colleges. The British and American constitutions are both currently battered by criticism from their subjects for falling short of democratic ideals, notably in handling accountability and checks on executive power. The outcome of America's 2000 election was decided not be the ballot but by an appointed oligarchy. Americans would hardly have welcomed election monitors from Ukraine, India or Thailand encamped in the Miami Hilton.

I may believe that democracy is the best path to a stable and prosperous society and hope that others agree as to it virtues. Unlike the earlier propagation of Christianity, I do not regard this as a matter of blind faith. Democratic principles are rooted in human freedom and tested empirically over time. Other things being equal, or even unequal, I would advocate them as of universal application to every society. Those who espouse them merit not just the World Service of the BBC but active friendship and support, especially in time of trouble.

But democracy is best propagated by example, not by conquest or official admonition. There are too many blots on Britain's escutcheon for its leaders to go lecturing the world in terms redolent of the new interventionism. There may be beams in the eyes of other democracies and motes in ours, but their beams are not our business.

Pakistan is the sixth biggest country in the world. Its fragile half-democracy is conditioned by the insecurities of its recent past and by a desperate poverty. There are a hundred ways of helping it along the rocky path between democracy and dictatorship, a path Britain spent a leisurely two centuries traversing. But ultimately Pakistan, like Kenya, will be the stronger for taking this path alone. The last thing they need is a hectoring phone call from a post-imperial nanny.

Comments

[raptor]

I understand that one, if not the main, requirement of democracy is a strong, literate middle class. Look at a map of literacy rates, and that essentally rules out Subsharan Africa. Look at a map of literacy rates on the Arab and Muslim world, and how skewed those are between men and women. Afghanistan: 28%; of those, men 48@, women 12.5 %. 28% lieracy. And that's a democracy? Remember all those Karzai voters? Pakistan: 50%; of those, men 63%, women 36%. 50% literacy. And that's a democracy? I'll stop now and not even quote the middle class percentages, even for the US.

[Jane]

I always love your articles. I wish you would post more of them.

[deminmo]

The Constitution is not the problem, its the
lack of checks and balances, which is why we
"the People" elect Representatives and
Senators. Those elected to carry out this job
are not doing it.
I agree, we as a country should not be telling
other goverments how to do it, in light of
all the political hijinks here. But we have always played two countries against each other
for the political gain. We invade Iraq to take
out a leader we watch kill thousands of his
own people, and do nothing. We fund his war with
Iran, but now turn on Iran. We play nice with
and send money to Musharraf in hopes to influence elections favorable to the US. But
even more important, to keep nuclear armed
missles out of the hands of terrorists. I use
the term "us" as in US goverment, not the
individual citizen.
We have to get back to being a country that is
a positive example.

[Boobaloo]

Well, well, well.

This is an author and an article I can get on board with.

The nauseating chorus of imperialist condecension coming from Britain and the US is enough to make me puke.

[HeevenSteven]

Very interesting piece Simon.

I never had any poly-Sci or philosophy is school, just engineering and economics. I didn't have deep interest until 2001; boy have I gotten an education since. I started out with Robert D Kaplan's "Was Democracy Just a Moment", "The Coming Anarchy" and especially "Warrior Politics", which took me on a long road (still far from finished) into philosophy. Agree with Kaplan or not, his book sparked my curiosity and I'm forever in debt to him.

Fareed Zakaria's "Future of Freedom" was so much food for thought. I'm in the middle of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire" now.

I used to think that congress people, judges, presidents, etc knew all about this stuff. The scary thing for me now is realizing that so many of them who think they know the answers, barely understand the questions.

[villastrangiato]

Seriously, what self respecting country in the world today would look at the United States and its "demands" with anything but disgust. The AP reported today a major shift in our airforce's military tactics - taking pilots out of the cockpits and putting them behind computer screens in Nevada to remotely control unmanned killer aircraft in Iraq.

HOW IRONIC - THE NATION THAT DECLARED THE PILOTS WHO SPLATTERED THEMSELVES ONTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AS COWARDS IS NOW KILLING PEOPLE IN IRAQ VIA REMOTE CONTROL! MAKES YOU PROUD TO BE AN "AMAIRCAN" - DON'T IT?

[chendri887]

What should the US government's role be in such a world? It is a complete free-for-all, with no rules and every country defining "democracy" for itself? If so, when is it appropriate for the US government to become involved in trying to steer a country or leader in a different direction? Never? Only when the country attacks us physically on our own territory?

[NewAmericanCenturySucks]

If democracy, freedom, and the rule of law are suffering from an image problem these days, it might be because it is precisely these sparkling pure principles in which your nation's greasy imperialism is ever shrouded.

Blaming global instability on democracy is like blaming prostitution on rouge.

[Jonahson]

Why look so far? You can look at your own backyard for the abuse of democracy. True democracy is 'For the people, by the people'. People here means the majority. The majority in US wanted the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and to end the occupation of Iraq after finding the invasion of Iraq was based on dubious reasons. It didn't happen instead US is now like the Imperial Empire of the old. Conquering for the richness of dirty oil. To allow this to happen means going against the wishes of the people which means the USA is not practicing true democracy.

[jackpinesavage]

Amen, and the wisdom of this post goes double for these United States.

[peterg76]

Britain at least 1) is a democracy, 2) recognizes its moral obligation to its former colonies in the developing world, and 3) might possibly have some useful advice.

None of these are true about the US which is by far the world leader in inappropriate (and usually destructive and destabilizing) interventions in sovereign countries.

But even if Britain is overstepping its bounds, it hardly means that "[d]emocracy is looking sick just now". The "West" is not monolithic, nor is "democracy".

It just seems that democracy is trouble because democracy is under assault in two countries that have large populations, possess nuclear weapons, have militaries with far too much influence in their government, and are dominated by religious extremists, namely Pakistan and the United States.

[escobar]

Post Imperialist?
Well, the leaders of the USA have not been nationalists for 20 years but imperialism is alive and well in the offshore international corporate community.

[escobar]

The "New world order" of George Bush Sr. is not POST, Imperialist.
While 17 Century Popes are hardly relevant to anyone alive today, the supression of "Liberation theology" in order to insure survival of the institution isn't new either.
The US crowing about democracy in their client states is like just the Wizard of OZ saying, "Ignore that man behind the curtain"!!

[RobtBrock]

Pakistan is not a "fragile half-democracy." Nor is it a quarter or an eighth. "Fragile" is probably accurate, however.

[martinchill]

perhaps off-topic; perhaps not.

~~

bush family connections:

Anne Hutchinson (1591"1643), a Massachusetts religious dissident, was an 11th"generation ancestor of Samuel P. Bush through his mother Harriet Fay.[5] The same family line makes the Bushes distant cousins of Presidents George Washington, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge.

Rev. John Lathrop - ancestor of Samuel P. Bush via his mother Harriet Fay. This same line makes the Bushes cousins to President Ulysses S. Grant as well as Benedict Arnold, among many, many others.

~~

Oct 29, 2007

(CBS) It was revealed recently that Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama are distant cousins.

This week, thanks to a New York Post story about genealogy, we're getting a glimpse at the rather surprising family tree of President Bush himself, reports CBS News Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith.

We all know who the president's father is, but what about his cousins?

Thanks to research done by Ancestry.com, we know that Cheney, the man who's only a heartbeat away from the presidency, is actually a blood relation to the president. He's Bush's Mr. ninth cousin once removed.

Cheney's cousin, Obama, is also Mr. Bush's 11th cousin, and the ninth cousin of actor Brad Pitt.

But we're only getting started: Abraham Lincoln was Mr. Bush's seventh cousin, five times removed.

And Mr. Bush shared more than just a ballot with John Kerry in 2004 -- that's right, they're ninth cousins, twice removed.

There's also royalty in the Bush bloodline. Princess Diana was Mr. Bush's 11th cousin, twice removed.

And then there's this bombshell: Marilyn Monroe, known for wishing John F. Kennedy a happy birthday, is Mr. Bush's ninth cousin, three times removed.

He's also related to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, Native American princess Pocahontas, and Vlad the Impaler.

Trace the family tree far enough, and you get Madonna, Celine Dion and Tom Hanks -- which shows that genealogy can sometimes be like a box of chocolates: You never know who you're gonna get.