CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY

Our reverence for Democracy is one of the accepted platitudes of the age. “We, the people”, “The People have spoken”, “The People’s Princess”, the phrases are easily parroted and imbued with righteousness. In a select band of countries Democracy works well and her citizens are often rather too keen to export this heady brew. The truth is that Democracy untrammelled and unguided is a dangerous toy, quite capable of delivering misery and catastrophe to its proponents.

The positive side of Democracy is well-known and deserves all the praise it gets. Britain has a well-oiled parliamentary democracy, the product of many generations of compromise and creative evolution. The temper of the people is pragmatic and unconfrontational. A majority party will not force through its programme without consultation and adjustment; the importance of winning general consent, however grudging, is understood. With no written constitution and plenty governmental illogicalities, Britain nevertheless is an inclusive, reasonably contented society.

The United States is a model and beacon of Democracy for many nations. It operates under a carefully drafted constitution, modernised by many amendments. The legislature, executive and judiciary are formally separated and the 50 states jealously preserve their local rights. Participation in community matters, local and national elections is at a high level and the contests between the two main parties, after noisy campaigns, almost always end in expressions of unity. The office of the President is greatly respected. In our times, the slow implementation of civil rights for 44m black Americans is the only blot on an otherwise fine record, much redeemed by the Obama presidency.

The Capitol, Washington

The Democracies of Western Europe are now admirable too, although many have a dark history before 1945. Many (like Italy, Greece and Spain) boast a profusion of parties, a bad sign, as it suggests fixed positions, weak coalitions and a lack of the compromises so necessary for smooth government. British and American influences have seen flourishing Democracies in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and, remarkably, in India together with the systems in many smaller nations.

Outside this rather tight group of truly Democratic countries, the picture is less clear. History tells us that simply holding or winning an election or plebiscite does not legitimise every action of the government, although it is a much-used ploy. The majority can be as tyrannous and illiberal as any dictator. Hitler’s Nazis were the largest party in Germany in 1933, as were Mussolini’s Fascists in Italy in 1924. The war-weary French flocked to vote for Papa Petain in 1940. These regimes were in no sense Democratic as they persecuted their opponents without restraint and thus sullied the common values lying behind the Democratic ideal.

Sham Democracy: Hitler and Hindenburg

In our world, we are witnessing the “Arab Spring”. Fetid regimes in Iraq, Libya and Egypt have been overthrown but their likely replacements are not much better. The Muslim Brotherhood claims to uphold Islamic ideals, but many Muslim scholars dispute this. The new politicians often have a sectarian programme and resurrect archaic notions of exemplary punishments and of the inferior position of women. They may have popular support – no doubt jihadists and the Taliban claim as much – but they have no place in Democratic society as long as the civil rights of others are abused.

To its credit, the EU has tried to lay down standards of civil rights and the rule of law for all countries applying for membership. Yet we may well be uneasy at the admission of some Balkan and Eastern European nations, whose Democracies are at best skin-deep. Ethnic tensions blew apart the former Yugoslavia and racial hatreds lurk below the surface. We do not easily forget the 1995 massacre of over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebenica by murderous Bosnian Serbs under General Mladic, while a supposedly protective 400-strong Dutch military contingent (more engrossed perhaps by their hair-nets and earrings) failed to intervene in a shameful display of craven collusion. 

Restitution and atonement are required before such peoples can be classed as Democratic.

It is a mistake to take a complacent and smug view of Democracy. There are other roads to take in peacefully developing a nation. Although opposition was suppressed, Kemal Ataturk’s modernising government quickly lifted Turkey out of its Ottoman lethargy in the 1920s and 1930s. The desire for a “strong man” to lead the nation is a powerful motive. Immense China, after the Mao Terror, progresses spectacularly in its own fashion under a single-party regime. Russia, ever an enigma, holds elections, transfers powers, prospers and may yet adopt Western standards. Latin America had generations of strongmen, but Democracy is taking root there; Africa is often gripped by corruption and brutality, yet its one-party system may be suited to its genius. Only in the Islamic world are there significant groups openly inimical to the West – in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan – who plot terrorist strikes against our citizens. Our easy acceptance of these people as immigrants or even visitors is sadly a naïve error.

Our sworn Enemies, the Taliban

Democracy is a delicate plant and may only be the least bad system. We currently rejoice in our good fortune in living in peace and contentment. It is by no means safe or eternal and the shock of economic dislocation or of war can overthrow it. My hopefully paranoid nightmare of a dispirited Britain or an abject US ruled by Taliban Revolutionary Guards or by a Mandarin Chinese functionary is maybe not quite so far-fetched as we think. Just ensure it is not in my time, please.

A future US President?

      

SMD

17.07.13

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013