The Democracy Promotion Paradox by Lincoln A. Mitchell

Author:Lincoln A. Mitchell [Mitchell, Lincoln A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Diplomacy, Democracy, Political Ideologies, Political Science, Political Freedom, Geopolitics
ISBN: 9780815727033
Google: q17MCQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 29106179
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 2015-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

WHAT DEMOCRACY IS AND ISN’T

Because of the way democracy programming works, democracy according to the U.S. government often takes on a relatively process-oriented and formal definition. USAID defines democracy as “a civilian political system in which the legislative and chief executive offices are filled through regular, competitive elections with universal suffrage. Democracy is characterized by civil liberties, including the rights to speech, association, and universal suffrage, as well as the rule of law and respect for pluralism and minority rights.”11 This is not surprising given the highly technical approach of democracy work. Competent legislatures, laws similar to those in the West, and free and fair elections are central to this U.S. government definition of democracy. These are all important components of democracy, but they also represent a limited understanding of democracy, one that does not devote any attention to issues such as equality and opportunity, or a gamut of economic concerns.

Democracy is a political system and an ideology, but in foreign policy it is too frequently conflated with three peripherally related concepts: support for the U.S. foreign policy agenda, a market economy, and a vague affinity for the West generally. First, in many cases democracy is assumed to be linked to support for U.S. foreign policy; a measure of a country’s democratic evolution is therefore its orientation toward the West. The evidence of this can be seen in how nondemocratic regimes are judged differently in Washington based on their relationships with the West.

For example, former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was often described as a democrat despite evidence that, as his tenure went on, Georgia was becoming less democratic.12 The reason for this was that he wanted to orient his country toward Washington, not Moscow. This may have been a good policy for both Tbilisi and Washington, but had no direct bearing on democracy. A similar situation occurred in Kyrgyzstan where, by 2009, Kurmanbek Bakiev presided over what was, by almost any measure, a repressive regime, but because he continued to allow the United States access to the Manas Air Force Base, which was of great importance for the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, the depth of the authoritarianism to which his regime had sunk was not fully recognized in Washington until after he had been ousted.13

Democratic regimes that do not support U.S. foreign policy, by contrast, are subject to much greater scrutiny and, occasionally, even U.S.-backed coup attempts. Examples of this can be found throughout the postwar history of America, including Chile in 1973 and Iran in 1953, but more recently in the American perspective on elections in Venezuela and left-of-center regimes in Latin America.

In a similar way, democracy from the American policy perspective is frequently linked to a market economy. The 1998 national security strategy document refers to the need “to secure and strengthen the gains of democracy and free markets while turning back their enemies,” suggesting democracy and free markets are two sides of the same coin.14 The 2006 national security strategy uses stronger language, arguing that governments

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