The thankless task of promoting democracy
Matthew Spence The New York Times
MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2005
In democracy promotion, nothing fails like success. No sooner did
the Orange Revolution give Ukraine a second chance at democracy last November
than criticism began that America had improperly meddled in Ukraine's internal
affairs. The apparent transition in another former Soviet republic, Kyrgyzstan,
has begun that misguided debate again.
Meanwhile, when America's efforts at promoting democracy do not
replace a dictator in a matter of months or years, Congress demands some
ill-chosen proof of success - the number of newspapers printed, say, or civil
society groups founded, or candidates on the ballot - that themselves are not
the same as meaningful political change.
Attitudes like this have made democracy promotion a lose-lose
proposition in American politics. To be sure, the Bush administration has
greatly increased financing for efforts to nurture democracy in the Middle
East. But it has left the rest of the democratizing world behind. The National
Endowment for Democracy, for example, recently saw its budget double to $80
million, but all the increase was earmarked for Middle East democracy efforts.
At the same time, democracy-building programs in Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union by different agencies have been slashed under Bush's watch.
Part of the problem is that whenever a democracy promotion program
does what it is supposed to - that is, help strengthen local forces to have a
voice against a repressive government - accusations of improper meddling
immediately fly. Critics on both the left and the right - from the conservative
Patrick Buchanan to left-leaning writers in The Guardian in Britain - assert
that the United States is rigging elections and engineering coups, à la Latin
America in the cold war, and accuse the U.S. Agency for International
Development of unseemly interference.
The National Endowment for Democracy is constantly being accused of
serving as a CIA front rather than being recognized for what it does: doling
out fairly small grants to television stations that show debates over public
policy and groups that monitor election returns. Consequently, U.S. programs
are straitjacketed, and the government disingenuously cloaks its policy as
"neutral" or "technical assistance."
In fact, little about "democracy" or democracy promotion is
value-neutral, nor should it be. Promoting democracy is not about imposing a
president or political system in America's image. But democracy involves
representative government, and that directly challenges the power of the
autocratic leaders who try to fix elections, close newspapers and jail
opposition leaders. As a result, democracy promotion meets loud criticism from
those whose power is threatened.
Some forms of U.S. democracy promotion are inappropriate - and
we've seen enough of that over the past half-century to make many of us deeply
suspicious of any American fingerprints on revolution abroad. But as I saw in
researching Western democracy promotion efforts in the former Soviet Union in
2002 and 2003, such inappropriate programs are not what led to the resignation
of Kyrgyzstan's president, Askar Akayev.
Western governments offered seed money to nongovernmental
organizations and newspapers, which understandably could not rely on capital
from the Kyrgyz, half of whom live below the poverty line. Western dollars
enabled courageous local journalists to write what they wanted, including
criticisms of American policy, and allowed groups to organize as they were
inspired. Indeed, many of the nongovernmental leaders with whom I met
throughout the former Soviet Union wanted more open support from the United
States to defend them from their own government's harassment.
It's important to remember that none of the changes under way - in
Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, Lebanon and beyond - could happen without the courage and
dedication of local activists. The U.S. government is not implanting democracy;
it is helping seeds grow that must already be there. In Kyrgyzstan, that came
in the form of providing the only independent printing press, rather than
telling journalists what they should print. It entailed funds for computers and
meeting spaces for nationwide coalitions of civic groups, not writing their
speeches.
More important, none of the activities that the United States
supports - like independent newspapers, free elections or active civic groups -
are illegal in the countries where America provides democracy assistance. The
U.S. government must even obtain permission from the local government to
provide any specific assistance program at all. That is hardly the stuff of
subversion. The primary democracy promotion efforts that the United States
undertakes in most of the world - not the military brand that receives the most
attention in Iraq and Afghanistan - simply asks fledgling democracies to make
good on their word to their people, and enforce the democratic laws on their
books.
The best lesson we can learn from the last decade is to have
realistic expectations about how long it takes for democracy to develop. And
when Western support produces some good, it shouldn't be a cause for retreat
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