>> From: joand315 <joand315 at ameritech.net>
> I hope you don't think I was trumpeting Kipling's ode to imperialism.
> My point was that it takes democracy a while to evolve. You can't just
> snap your fingers and have a democratic nation. In country after
> country we have held elections first, only to have those states fail,
> because we did not ensure that those countries had sufficient
> institutional infrastructure to function. I
> ---
>
> I think there is an added element: There is a tendency to think that
> "democracy" however defined is the default mode of human social
> organization, something that everybody really wants, and left to their
> own devices that is the system they would willingly adopt. Despite its
> (sort of) having existed for only about 150 years or so.
> Do people in tribal socieities really want "democracy" as we understand
> the term?
The easy answer would be to say no. But, I do think that tribal societies practice a form of democracy, not formalized by institutions that we would immediately recognize as democratic but subject nonetheless to the "will of the people" in one form or another. Tribal leaders require the consent of the people to lead, and aren't immune to attacks from rivals for power or the discontented populace. The advantage of democracy, as we practice it, for tribal societies, is an orderly transfer of power and not much else.
Being in the main homogenous, the protection of minorities, and the right of redress aren't as difficult to accomplish.
As I said, democratic rule can not be imposed, and every time we have tried it has been an abysmal failure. What I implied, perhaps not successfuly, was that we should stop trying.
In the meantime, where does that leave Iraq? I would guess that leaves it headed for civil war, and the end result if the South wins, will be some sort of theocracy, with the Kurd population ultimately decimated. We, the U.S., will have to withdraw having done more harm than good, to put it mildly.
Your larger question as to whether we should think about imposing democracy at all, is moot, because that is what we are thinking about doing, and that aim as formulated by the Bush administration is doomed to failure. -joan
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