Missionaries of Democracy

by Frank Pauc

April 2, 2010

    Americans believe in democracy. It is our national religion. We are convinced, despite any evidence to the contrary, that democratic institutions are always the best. We believe that in any situation, in any set of circumstances, a freely elected government will work better than any other manner of running a society. Like all true believers, we are missionaries, carrying our faith to the heathen. Presently, we are proselytizing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as had been the case for many other others in the past, we are spreading the faith by force of arms.Over the course of years, we have taught our new catechumens the rituals of democracy; the election campaigns and the voting procedures. With our strong encouragement, two countries with literally no experience with democracy have held elections in order to form strong, functioning goverenments. There has only been one problem with our efforts: the governments that have been elected don't work.
    Why should this be? America has a long history of exporting democracy. It goes back at least as far as Woodrow Wilson and his Fourteen Points. Our efforts to create democratic societies has worked before; look at Germany and Japan. Why are things such a mess this time around?
    Democracies are more than just elections. Fair elections are crucial for the establishment of functioning governments, and there is some doubt as to whether Afghanistan is capable of conducting clean elections. However, more importantly, elected governments only work when certain conditions exist. The citizens of a particular country must view themselves  as people who are loyal primarily to that state. The Afghanis must see themselves first and foremost as Afghanis, and not as Pashtun, or Tajik, or Uzbek, or whatever. The Iraqis must see themselves foremost as Iraqis, rather than as Shiites or as Sunnis or as Kurds. This is not happening. The citizens of these states view themselves in terms of their tribal relations, and at best, view themselves as members of their respective countries only as a secondary identity. Democracy cannot flourish in an environment where the people do not have a common heritage. Germany and Japan have cultures that are much more unified than those in Iraq or Afghanistan. In short, Germany and Japan are nations; these other two countries really are not.
    Another criterion for a working political system is that there must be some level of trust between the parties involved in making this government work. This condition is sadly lacking in both Afghanistan and Iraq. To be honest, this lack of trust also exists here in the U.S. Our elected government is functioning poorly for precisely this reason. Our elected officials yell at each other and call each other names. We aren't at the point of assassinating our opponents yet, but we are getting close. In any case, democracies don't work in societies where adversaries are literally at each others throats. There has to be a certain amount of civility and compromise to get things done. There are other examples of elected governments collapsing because the parties refused to work for the common good; the Weimar Republic in Germany comes to mind.
    Our country has spent over a trillion dollars and wasted thousands of lives to transplant our political faith in two cultures that are radically different from ours. Like all fundamentalists, we can't accept the possibility that we might be wrong. We can't accept the notion that perhaps our way isn't the best way. Until such a time as we are able to look clearly at this situation, we will continue to waste our lives and treasure, not to mention the suffering we cause to those we would convert. Maybe now is the time to step and back and take a second look at what we are doing.