Democracy not easy to export

Last week, I lamented our trend toward ‘one step forward and two steps back’ on the war in Iraq.??I also noted the emergence of the question, ‘Who lost Iraq’?

I characterized ‘Who Lost Iraq’? as being ‘premature,’ tempting though it may be to politicians in both parties to beat each other up on.??The larger problem with this kind of question, it seems to me, is it is also presumptuous in the extreme.

Raising the bloody banner of ‘Who lost Iraq’? assumes we somehow had Iraq to lose in the first place.??Viewed objectively, the notion that Iraq was ours to lose is sheer nonsense.??Culturally, ethnically, religiously, socially and politically, modern Iraq is a country cobbled together by others and held together in recent decades by the ruthless dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.

Our leaders’ ethnocentric ignorance of Iraqi history and culture led us to believe the Iraqi people were ripe for democracy, American style.??Our leaders’ arrogance of power fueled that belief to Messianic levels.??Political pundits, myself included, praised the Iraqi people for going to the polls in droves, despite the mortal dangers of doing so.

Unfortunately, our unbridled faith in the Iraqi elections foundered on the shoals of Iraqi disunity.??In banking on the elections, we mistook a partial truth for the whole truth.??While free and fair elections are necessary, they are not sufficient to ensure democracy.??Instead, elections are part of a system of intricately interwoven processes that include majority or plurality rule, freedom of expression, the right of opposition, and so on.??

To actually work, these processes of democracy must rest securely on a bedrock of democratic values, including personal liberty, respect for the individual, equal opportunity, and popular consent. In turn, these processes and values must be institutionalized and reinforced by political structures that protect and preserve these essential ingredients of democracy.

The quintessential political structure that protects and preserves our democratic values and processes is our U.S. Constitution.??Rightly called the ‘Miracle at Philadelphia,’ the Constitution both grants and limits government power.??At least five distinctive components of the Constitution contribute to its ingenious structure: ‘federalism,’ which divides power between our national and state governments; ‘separation of powers,’ which divides power among our executive, legislative and judicial branches; ‘bicameralism,’ which further divides legislative power between the House of Representatives and the Senate; ‘checks and balances,’ which enable each branch to check the powers of the other two; and an explicit ‘Bill of Rights,’ to guarantee our individual liberties and due process before the law.

This complex system of democratic values, processes and structures has worked well for us for more than 200 years.??We may not fully understand or appreciate it, but we do take it for granted.??We even assume that American-style democracy is the envy of the world.

So, like President Bush and many before him, we try, often in vain, to export our democratic system to other lands.??These noble, but sometimes na??ve efforts have met with very mixed results.??More on some reasons why next week.

Thomas B. Vaughn is an instructor at Motlow College and co-host of the radio show ‘Viewpoints,’ which airs on WCPI 91.3FM.