Democracy - It Ain't Easy

I remember some of the arguments I had with some more liberal friends (you know who you are) back during the early parts of the Iraq War. At the time, I was supporting the continuation of the Iraq War and they were opposing it. (I am not sure whether I supported the invasion - I think at times I did and other times did not. My knowledge of world issues was very limited then.)

I believed, influenced by Thomas Friedman, that we could easily create a democracy in Iraq. If I remember my friends' arguments, they believed that Iraqis were not ready for democracy and that it would not work if it was forced on them instead of them fighting for it themselves. (If I have misrepresented your arguments, please correct me.) I completely rejected that, believing everyone can become democratic.

Looking back, not just after six years in Iraq, but looking at other democracies around the world, I realize that I still believe everyone can have a democracy. What I realize though was that my expectations were extremely naive. Democracies cannot sprout overnight. Democracies need time to grow, to learn from mistakes, and to evolve. They also need stability and a strong middle class.

When we look around the world, we see democracies that have had far more time than Iraq to settle. In these countries, we still see significant growing pains. Pakistan continues to deal with threatened autocratic rule, disrespect for the rule of law and corruption. None of their leaders are free of one or all of these charges. We saw what can happen with contested elections in a relatively stable country like Kenya. South Africa right now seems to face a choice between an ineffective leader and AIDS denier (Thabo Mbeki) and a corrupt leader who is also facing serious rape charges (Jacob Zuma).

If you look at American history, you see similar growing pains. It took us two tries to chose the right form of government (see Articles of Confederation). We fought a bloody civil war. And we have had our own long fight with corruption, which is a fight we will never fully win, as Rod Blagojevich proves.

So I look back at my support then of the war, and I am embarrassed about my naivete. However, I can partly excuse myself since I was just starting to learn about the international world and form my own theories. What is scary is that we had a president who knew so little about the world that he believed creating a democracy was easy. Worse, he still believes it.

While I no longer think democracy is easy, this does not mean I will give up hope. It does mean that we need to change our expectations and our policies. We need to help foster the growth of democracies without the expectation that they will form overnight. This can mean helping increase stability and growth of a middle class. We also need to avoid grand plans like Iraq in the future. And in a place like Afghanistan, we need to be prepared for the long haul.