Re: [Futurework] Pax Democratica - a proposal

[G. Stewart]

Thanks, Karen. It's very helpful to get feedback on such an idea. I had been fretting about a largely untempered US role in the world, (both for the sake of the US and the rest of the world) and also about the damage done to the United Nations. (I think myself that the Security Council did the damage largely to itself but it is nonetheless damaged.)  I also think "democracy" is the difference between Iraq and the US . Particularly in this war the openness of the US -- the fearlessness of its people -- in being able to criticize their government and to work for reform of the nation is on clear display. Nor is the US alone - Britain is openly very divided and Canada, despite currently holding  its breath about trade or other reprisals later, has struck an independent course from the US in not supporting war on Iraq. I do think democracy, that long slow process of extending enfranchisement over eight centuries, from the Barons and the Magna Carta in England and accelerating greatly in the 19th and 20th centuries, has much to be said for it and should be able to sustain a great variety of regimes and cultures.   But whether an occasional convening of the democracies (a little like the annual convening of the World Economic Forum?) with a small Secretariat as in the Commonwealth, is a good idea I wasn't sure and so thought I would set it out and circulate it a bit for comment. It might have one advantage that I didn't mention -- coming together like that, there might be "technology exchange" about how certain issues can be addressed. Canada, for example, is currently much admired for its multicultural approach (Michael Ignatieff at Harvard has written about this) and is being consulted by countries around the world. I was hoping that to the degree an exchange of ideas and practices would obviously be part of meetings of the Commons that it could be a useful institution. . The many associations of democracies now in existence are not specifically for the purpose of sustaining and improving their democratic systems of government and this should be part of the Commons, or so I thought. Even though many countries now have almost formal universal enfranchisement, there is still a long way to go before effective universal enfranchisement is achieved.   But we'll see. I'm going to circulate the idea a bit and see what happens to it, so I much appreciated your comments. And your Yalta reference was a nice reminder. Thanks!   Gail                  Gail Stewart [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Watters Cole To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: G. Stewart Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 6:03 PM Subject: RE: [Futurework] Pax Democratica - a proposal Gail, I thought the proposal read very well, if perhaps too optimistically for me at this dark moment.  My primary concern would be that in these times of emphatic uber-practical Necessaritarism (ie. 9/11 “changed everything”) there is not much enthusiasm in the present administration for idealism and/or international bodies that don’t show strength.  Everyone seems to be selling muscle these days.   Even though I am worried about the economy, I think Ray raised a good point, that it is premature to declare American economic power in permanent decline, so unless this American administration gets to found and host a new global body, I am dubious that Canada and the UK would have much luck with it.  However, since these large concept ideas take such a long time to come to fruition, I’d like to see some competitive talk among nations that might, at the very least, remind this current US administration that it has a ‘checks and balances’ reputation to uphold, not ignore.  The less pessimistic part of me says Go for it. We must have other options than the long range plans that this elite is putting into place for us. They do so not in my name.   While reading this I kept thinking of Yalta, a moment when the victorious leaders of allied forces stopped by a tiny spot and made plans for an otherwise neglected region while the world’s attention was focused elsewhere.  Look what happened.  Of course, we can’t let all the failures and missteps in the past prevent us from trying again.  Like they say, it doesn’t matter how many times you fall down, it’s how many times you get back up that counts. I think we need visionary minds and voices to help us imagine a sustainable peace, not permanent, ongoing militancy to transplant instademocracy.   Bon chance. - Karen