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PRESENTS
Can democracy be exported?
Victor RUTTOH
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Postgraduate of International Politics and Security Studies
University Of Bradford,
October 2004
Can democracy be exported?
Promoting democracy abroad has been the pillar of various foreign policies of established democracies with the hope of achieving a global political order that will foster the respect and adherence to the rule of law. In this article I argue that the means rather than the end of conceiving an ideal democracy in an autocracy or semi autocratic government is the greatest contention in the field of international politics.
An Ideal democracy should answer this simple question, ‘How should societies coexist and distribute their resources equitably?’ Here, we need to distinguish the question of resource distribution and governance in varied societies. Varying and divided societies are as old as the mankind itself. They have coexisted and governed themselves overtime and it’s during the periods of state building and colonization that their ways of administering and governing their societies were shunned and replaced by the occupiers’ fashion of governance. In essence, exporting democracy to ‘uncivilized societies’ is not new, rather it has been tried and failed in the past and some of its by-products are the contemporary ethnic conflicts in various parts of the world. Africa for example, was scrambled by the colonial powers who demarcated the continent into segments disregarding the shared identities and cultural practices of the heterogeneous communities. Various conflicts have been the struggle for secessionism within sovereign states where some groups feel to be unfairly treated by the governing body and usually are aided by external interveners who have interest in the community or others who feel that their own people of the same ethnicity but living in a different country are being persecuted and its out of moral obligation to intervene.
Other conflicts have been fueled by hatred that was created during colonial era. The genocide in Rwanda is good example where it was easy to ignite the long and overdue hatred that the majority Hutus had towards the Tutsis and moderate Hutus who had been likened and enjoyed favors from the Belgian colony. The colony perceived the Tutsi and moderate Hutus as clever and more admirable among the communities and they were echeloned to take leadership and governance when Rwanda attained her independence. The colonial undemocratic minority rule centered much power on the leaders and is arguable the reason that there is tendency of African leaders to stick in power until they volunteer to resign, a coup de tat, assassination, or by natural dead of the president that will set space for transition (1). The challenges that face democracies are not limited to divided societies of the developing world, but some western countries have exhibited varying challenges. Italy is a good example where her democratic processes has been coupled with controversies like corruption in the government top ranks and deep division in leadership that has seen the country participating in numerous elections in the past decades (2).
Why the need to democratize the whole globe? Democratic peace theorists claim that democracies don’t fight each other democracies and I argue they do in essence conquer and fight non-democracies in varying ways.
In the past years, we have witnessed illegal military intervention on Iraq by the coalition of the willing, abuse of prisoners at the Abu Graib prison, detention without trial at Guantanamo Bay and a list of endless actions that are non-conformity with the chapters of United Nations. Such actions question the credibility of the ‘civilized and free world’ that proclaim to observe the rule of law and are now the custodian of exporting democracy. The same countries have not only negated the 1968 treaty of Westphalia that stipulated the sovereignty of states by illegal military intervention, but are also able to transcend borders by tactically instituting policies at international institutions like the IMF, World Bank, WTO and other NGO’s that have coerced governments to dance to their tunes (3).
A meaningful democracy will only prevail when it has its roots from within the society and not by imposition of an external force. This follows a quest for democracy by the society after appropriate machinery and institutions that will uphold the democratic space and rule of law are in place. India, the world largest democracy gives a good case. Like many offspring of the colonial British Empire, she modeled her government from the British parliamentary system and has developed and enacted various legislations that are needed to develop the society. The unexpected left wing election victory headed by Sonia Gandhi’s party with minimal election controversies unexpected from a divided society of a third world has confounded the notion that the Indian electorates are in terms with the wisdom of meaningful democracy.
Kenya on the contrary had earlier illuminated a similar trend and was envisioned to be the torchbearer of emerging true democracies in the Sub Saharan Africa after the December 2002 general election that saw the opposition coalition party under Mwai Kibaki leadership ending the iron fist 24-year rule of Daniel Arap Moi. They achieved the victory with campaign pretext of enacting a new constitution that will limit the president powers within 100 days of serving in the countries highest office only to hijack the process and to date Kenyans are still waiting for the constitution. This has caused a political crisis in the country and the coalition government is already in a shamble and Kenyans have already have lost confidence on its leadership (4).
The world’s vision is on the milestone democratic prototype that is currently underway in the Iraq and Afghanistan laboratoriums. With the determination of US and her allies to construct democracies on those countries, the successes or failures of the democratic processes after the anticipated elections will give the final verdict of the contest posed by the title of this essay. The greatest challenge in democratizing Iraq if they will ever have a fair and unlimited election is to contain the majority of Shia tribe from swinging the voting patterns over the Sunnis and Kurdish minority groups that will see the country back to tribal and autocratic leadership.
(1) Ruttoh, V. may 2004, Why has globalization and democratization failed Africa, article posted on UNA-Bradford website, www.fopad.co.uk
(1) BBC news, Tuesday 15 May 2001: Cautious welcome for Berlusconi Victory. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1331704.stm
(3) Ruttoh, V. op cit
(4) See BBC online article, Gandhi triumphs in Indian elections, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3712201.stm
Biography
BBC news, Thursday 13 May 2004, Gandhi triumphs in Indian election. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3712201.stm
BBC news, Tuesday 15 May 2001: Cautious welcome for Berlusconi Victory.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1331704.stm
Victor Ruttoh, May 2004, Why Globalization and democratization has failed Africa, an article posted on UNA-Bradford website. www.fopad.co.uk
Victor Ruttoh
Postgraduate of International Politics and Security Studies
University Of Bradford,
cikks@yahoo.com
COMMENTS RECEIVED
01 November 2004
Hello,
I was reading an article on your website this evening and would like to advise
you of several irregularities and false information in it.
The article was entitled 'Can democracy be exported?' by Victor Ruttoh - available at the
following link:
http://www.isupportafrica.com/nepad/nepad_general/can_democracy_be_exported.htm
I would recommend that you check these before uploading to a respectable site.
Regards,
Brian.
Brian Crowley
Bradford, West Yorshire, United Kingdom.
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