Democracy Comes in Many Flavors

Americans rightly rejoice in our democratic heritage, but we also wrongly believe we hold some kind of patent on democracy. The Bush campaign to spread democracy to the world plays on this erroneous belief, portraying Captain America, aided by some colorful sidekicks like Tony Blair and Perez Musharraf, as a super crusader rescuing the world by whatever means necessary and generously sharing our patented form of government - for a reasonable fee.

Here are the actual facts. Democracy is alive and well world-wide. Planet Earth does not need Captain America to rescue it from wholesale tyranny. It may come as news to some Americans but democracy comes in many flavors, not just the one we are currently experiencing in the USA, and the flavors of democracy can be modified and varied by the use of various seasonings.

The 2004 Dorling Kindersley publication, "The Book of Rule; How the World is Governed", explains that 156 of the 193 nations in the world, 81%, are democratically ruled. The book identifies five basic flavors of democracy, in this descending order of frequency: 59 Parliamentary (e.g. the United Kingdom and Canada); 48 Presidential (e.g. USA and Mexico); 34 multi-party (e.g. France and Lebanon); 9 Presidential Regimes (e.g. Belarus and Zimbabwe); and 6 Non-Party (e.g. Uganda and Micronesia).

All democracies, regardless of flavor, have three key ingredients, executive (e.g. President or Prime Minister), legislative (e.g. Parliament or Congress) and judicial (a Supreme Court and sometimes also a Constitutional Court), and a fourth which is not always identified on the labeling, the media (e.g. Fox News and Sense from Seattle). How governmental officials are chosen and the particular structure and rules of the ingredients constitute the seasonings. Though democracies are by nature dynamic and their seasonings are constantly being modified and adapted, the basic flavor of a particular version does not usually change.

Who are the other 37 nations - are they candidates for the Axis of Evil? Continuing with the food analogy, these nations are just different dishes. While democracy is the most popular, some people prefer a different taste, but that does not necessarily mean their preference is evil. Here are these other nations in descending order of frequency: 15 Monarchies (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Monaco); 9 Transitionals (e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq); 7 Single Party (e.g. China and North Korea); 4 Military (e.g. Pakistan and Sudan); and 2 Theocratic (Iran and Vatican City).

Sound arguments can be made that the nations under military and transitional rule are most likely on the road to democracy. Maybe some of the monarchial nations also will head down that road - some like Jordan and Qatar are more likely candidates than Saudi Arabia and Brunei. The Single Party nations are the four communist ones (China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba) and the dictatorial (Libya, Syria and Laos). The world is working successfully to continue encouraging changes in China and Libya. North Korea and Cuba will probably change dramatically when their rulers die. Theocracy in Iran is not respected by the rest of the world and is under internal stress. Vietnam, Syria and Laos are not significant international players and may wear down with time. Monaco and Vatican City are destined for permanent tourist attraction status.

The world is becoming more democratic not because of any American crusade, but because democracy, with all its imperfections, is the best form of government man has devised. World and multi-national organizations, most notably the 60 year old United Nations, are governed democratically.

Here is Amazon’s link to the Book of Rule: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789493543/qid=1104954021/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-9726751-7985533