Can Democracy Be Exported?

Before accepting as an article of faith the glib notion that Russia, Iraq, and other countries with traditions of authoritarian regimes cannot change, consider the observations of Nabeel Khoury, a retired US foreign service officer with extensive experience in the Middle East. Interviewed by Thomas L. Friedman, on c-span's "Book TV" January 15, 2020, Dr. Khoury questioned this assumption. Basically, he said the freedoms in the First Amendment of the US Constitution have universal appeal.

     During President Trump's impeachment trial, Congressional representatives often mentioned the wisdom of the small group who collaborated on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In essence, Dr. Khoury recommends a transition to democracy requires similar components: a small cadre of smart influencers and a plan. I was reminded of the intellectuals who gathered at Kavarna Slavia, Prague's Art Deco cafe, to plot Czechoslovakia's "Velvet Revolution."

     That is not to say, democratic changes are free of bloody combat, When Hong Kong's democracy activists first protested China's attempt to void the 1997 Sino-British agreement designed to govern for fifty years after London handed its colony over to Chinese rule, many assumed Beijing quickly would crush resistance. That was eight months ago. In that time, clashes with police and injuries have occurred, but Hong Kong's determination seems to have helped strengthen the determination of nearby Taiwan, another island governed by China, to re-elect a pro-democracy government on January 11, 2020.

     Just as violence can be expected to accompany a transition to democracy, factions within democratic movements also are likely. Authoritarian governments fail to satisfy not only the employment opportunities sought by educated young people in the Middle East and elsewhere, but in Russia, for example, they can fail to accommodate the needs of pensioners who resist increasing the age when they can draw benefits. Some seek freedom from corrupt officials who rob national economies, and others emphasize the desire for personal freedom to express their opinions and to live and work in humane conditions. The earlier marches Alexei Navalny led in Russia sought democratic reform, but he found protests against corruption had more appeal.

     If teachers guided students through the process of writing a Classroom Constitution, their students would see for themselves how factions would emerge to complicate the process. Students would come to appreciate how difficult it is to define the powers and responsibilities Articles would assign to a teacher, students, and administrators, as well as to create mechanisms for resolving disputes.

    Democracy brings with it a battle of ideas, once waged in pamphlets; now in social media. The highly-educated citizens China depends on for technological military and commercial advances value more leisure and call for shorter hours and fewer work days. They also value internet access free of censorship and figure out how to use Western sites both for technological tips and as a means to escape government oversight. On the other hand, new rural arrivals in China's metropolitan areas seek to fulfill basic needs for education, health care, and housing. 

     In order to fashion a democratic structure agreeable to all, masterful leaders need to study political theory and constitutional compromises. The US founders did not share the same objectives. Some owned slaves and others were abolitionists. Some preferred a strong central government; others clung to states' rights. When a rash of countries achieved independence from colonial powers after World War II, Dr. Lorna Hahn envisioned a way global experts could help satisfy the needs of newly independent countries. For 20 years, she sponsored forums and personal contacts that brought together a variety of scholars, such as attorneys experienced in writing constitutions, and leaders from developing countries at an Association on Third World Affairs. 

     For more echoes of Dr. Khoury's belief in the persistent universal quest for freedom that democratic systems of government provide, check out the earlier posts: "Why Do They Love Us?" and "Don't Give Up On Us."

Democracy for All

The musical, Hamilton, used rap songs to illustrate how history retells relevant ideas, such as the importance of being in the room where political decisions are made and the enduring influence wielded by the one who tells the story of what happened in the past.

     Those who live in countries, where they enjoy basic human rights, often need a reminder that conflicts between values: freedom and equality, unity and diversity, private wealth and common wealth, and law and ethics, frequently require reevaluation. In authoritarian countries, citizens need to discover the paths taken to achieve human rights for all.

     Without a Bill of Rights, citizens are condemned to perpetual 1984-type fear. TIME magazine (Nov. 13, 2017) reports how China currently uses a "social credit system" to keep track of every citizen's "financial data, social connections, consumption habits and respect for the law." Deviate from what is acceptable to the regime, and lose a promotion, your right to travel, and your children's futures, and you could end up in prison. You also have to worry about how a personal enemy might use a cyberattack to compromise your activities and alter your social credit score. 

     What is democracy's alternative? From Colonial Williamsburg, the Virginia village John D. Rockefeller, Jr. restored to show the origin of the United States, comes a concise, 168-page book, The Idea of America, that relies on primary documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, to recount relevant ideas. The book illustrates how early U.S. values have expanded to be more inclusive and how citizens can find guidance to resolve current issues by studying historic documents and values.

     Jeffrey Edleson, dean of the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, said The Idea of America was "a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of American society." That's too limiting. The Idea of America is food for thought for everyone looking for a worldview that could make life better for all human beings. The book is available at shop.colonialwilliamsburg.com.

   

Why Do They Love Us?

We believe that human rights are universal. As embedded in the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights, "all human beings are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." The Declaration declares everyone has the right to life, liberty, security, privacy, freedom from torture and arbitrary arrest or detention, equal protection before the law, and many freedoms, including the freedom to travel, receive an education, marry, own property, express an opinion, and associate with others.

     Since all human beings have a conscience, they have the right to choose to be an atheist or agnostic or whatever religion their conscience selects. Like Muslims, more than a billion Christians in the West and elsewhere choose to believe there is only one God. Only conversion, not coercion, may cause those who hold no belief, or a different one, to change their minds. No fatwa dispensation can consecrate the criminal slaughter of those who are not Muslim. The West believes that God needs to be allowed to let great sinners, like Paul, Augustine, and Ignatius of Loyola, choose to become great saints.

     Whether someone lives in the West, East, North, or South, life, not suicide, is a basic human right. Despite being blind, Chen Guangcheng defended the right of women, not the Chinese government, to determine the number of children a family should have. His opposition to forced abortions led to his house arrest and beatings of his wife. Like the millions of others who are fleeing from violence and murder in Syria, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or Libya, Chen escaped. Due to the good offices of the United States, he lives here now. He tells his story in The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man's Fight for Justice and Freedom in China. 

     Persecution is not the only reason refugees flee to the West. Poverty and lack of opportunity cause many to take great risks at sea and through deserts to find jobs here. In an interview by Robert Christian, published on the Millennial blog (millennialjournal.com), Chen reports that in the real China 70% of the population live in awful rural conditions not the modern skyscraper cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. In the United States, slaves, women, homosexuals, every ethnic and religious group, and people with disabilities have been able to appeal to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution in order to get their rights recognized and enforced. American blacks. women, and other groups have overcome job discrimination. They vote, attend public schools, and obtain small business loans. The social media that ISIS blithely uses to make bombs and recruit other terrorists was created by students educated in the West, not the Taliban who shot Malala in the head because she wanted to go to school. In the West, freedom of speech and opinions do not lead to murder. They lead to the formation of unions, media coverage, and legal remedies.

     Western researchers have come to the aid of the world's health. They have searched for and found cures for small pox, polio, pneumonia, and numerous other diseases that have plagued the world throughout history. Rather than shun, and even kill, homosexuals, Western researchers kept experimenting until they found a cocktail of drugs that could keep an HIV/AIDS diagnosis from being a death sentence. Because a French doctor founded Medecins sans Frontieres in 1971 and because charities and the Red Cross were willing to go to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, the Ebola epidemic has been stopped. And these Western organization continue to go everywhere, such as to Nepal, when natural disasters strike. Even when individuals like Kayla Mueller hear about people suffering in foreign countries, they leave their comfortable lives and go to help (See the earlier post, "The Continuing Battle of Good and Evil.).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Democracy is not perfect. People love the West, because we are free to laugh at ourselves and admit our faults. Britain's Winston Churchill summed it up. "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."