Is Arab democracy possible?

[dArKeR]

Current US policies are unsuited for the superpower's stated goal of bringing liberal values to a region with widespread poverty, joblessness and illiteracy

By Joseph Nye

With Iraq rapidly descending into bloody chaos, the prospects look bleak for holding successful democratic elections in January, as the US and the Iraqi interim government have promised. Some skeptics go further, arguing that the Iraq debacle proves that prospects for democracy throughout the Arab world are dim. Are they right?

Half the world's countries are democracies, yet none of the 22 Arab countries is among them. The UN's Arab Human Development Report is frank in its criticism of the region's economic and social progress. Economic growth has been slow, approximately half of all women are illiterate and the region is not well integrated into the world economy. Indeed, with a population of more than 300 million, Arab countries export less to the world, excluding oil and gas, than Finland.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/09/29/2003204857

Ya know, it could be me living in a shell or Democratic "thinkers" are idiots? I've never heard Iraq referenced to America bringing "liberal values" to Iraq. Why doesn't Kerry say this or others to bring a positive feeling to the word liberal?

[Larkspur]

1. Iran had a democracy in 1953, but the US overthrew it

because the democratically elected leader wantd to nationalize the oil industry.

[lanparty]

2. Was a female vote possible ...

... in 1896.

Let's face it. The Arabs have a fundamentally different culture. Democracy didn't just spring up overnight in America. It was an extension of a parlimentary system developed for the nobility applied to common landholders in the liberated American colonies.

Without Parliment in England, I doubt that we would have had Democracy in America. Without the convenient timing of the age of reason, I don't think Jefferson et al... would have been so influenced.

Finally, the BIGGEST reason we became a Democratic state is that revolutionary leaders were so divorced from the church hierarchies of Rome and London. Most of them were diests believing in the god expressed by nature. A few were downright hostile to it. And universally there was a sense that the clergy did too legitamize tyrants.

I think that Iraq will have to go through a stage of "limited Democracy" just like Iran has. We cannot simply expect foreign peoples to adopt the systems of governance that are so deeply affected by our culture. And finally, if the people VOTE for theocracy, we must RESPECT that as a democratic expression.

[Senior citizen]

3. Huh?

>Current US policies are unsuited for the superpower's stated goal of >bringing liberal values to a region with widespread poverty, >joblessness and illiteracy.

Oh, I agree. Unless Kerry wins, we are unlikely to be able to bring liberal values to the USA.

A lot of Arab countries are still in the dark ages, and the right wing attempts to turn the US into a theocracy would put us in the same boat. We can't help others move forward as long as we are moving backwards.

In order to win the election, Kerry has to refrain from alienating possible swing voters, and if they haven't already decisively joined the Kerry camp, they probably think liberal is a dirty word. Kerry is trying to bring a positive feeling to the word conservative--as in fiscal conservative, and conservative policies with regard to foreign affairs. Liberals and progressives who support Kerry are doing it because the 2000 (s)election taught us how important it is, when the choice is between a conservative and a fascist, to vote for the conservative.

[gottaB]

4. Yes. There is nothing "Arab" about authoritarian governments

One could say the same about Muslims and authoritarian revolutionary Islamic governments. Muslims in Turkey and Indonesia enjoy religious freedom and democratic rights. Despite the problems in these countries, these liberties are not unnoticed by Muslims in the Arab world.

Nye is right about the wrongness of neocon policy, esp. in Iraq. It's worse than just being wrong though. Bushco have really made a mess of it. In the view of Anyam Nour, an Egyptian liberal politican:

"Since the aid given to Egypt by the U.S. is misused by the government, all that remains in the minds of simple people is the position of America in Iraq and Darfur. The U.S. has no role in developing democratic life in Egypt. The dream of liberalism we had in the '70s has turned into a nightmare, especially after the latest developments, like Abu Ghraib."

The Challenger

The article continues:

Yet the U.S., welcome or not, continues trying to pull the levers here. "No one is willing to admit that the dynamic for reform is American pressure," says Hani Shukrallah, editor of the English-language Al Ahram Weekly newspaper. "There is a sense of urgency, I think. The U.S. and Europe both say to Egypt, 'You've become a source of trouble.' " Shukrallah said he's not sure America has a role to play supporting opposition groups like Tomorrow. "They should just stay away," he said. "It's the kiss of death."

Amy Hawthorne, an associate with the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, was also in Egypt last week, as a guest of the NDP. "There is a lot of confusion about what the U.S. should do," she said. "The fact that we were invited here shows that there is concern with Western public opinion, which is probably a by-product of diplomatic engagement. At no time in the past has the Egyptian government been concerned about that.

"We can't do nothing," she continued. "The U.S. did not create authoritarianism in the region. What we've done is aided and abetted it. We have a role to play in perpetuating or promoting gradual change." Hawthorne suggested that America should not shy away from supporting groups that criticize U.S. policy.

The Challenger

The US should have realistic expectations and it cannot afford to risk any more catastrophic successes.

***

About the word "liberal"--banging my head against the wall. Bush should be asked about his support for liberal democracy abroad.