Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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The Problem with Democracy

Rich Galen

Monday November 29, 2004

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The problem with the growing number of democracies around the world is this: They hold elections.

Afghanistan held an election in September which generated a good deal of coverage when the West thought it was going to be dreadful. Unfortunately for those sent to cover the election, it turned out to have fairly represented the will of the people so not much more has been written about it.

The US, you may remember, held an election four weeks ago. Despite dire predictions that it would be even worse than Afghanistan, the election here went off without any more than the usual number of too long lines and too short tempers.

On the other hand, Ukraine just conducted an election which apparently didn't work out very well. If the International Society of Dire Predictors actually predicted a bad election in Ukraine, I missed it.

Back in the day, Ukraine didn't hold real elections. When everyone went to the polls, it was simply to vote for the people who were listed as the candidates of the Communist Party and that was that.

The current election there was between Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich (who is known as being pro-Russian) and the leader of the opposition Viktor Yushchenko (who is considered to be pro-West).

Yanukovich won, but Yushchenko has declared himself the winner alleging huge voter fraud. The Parliament agreed and has adopted a resolution suggesting that the election should be re-run. The Ukrainian supreme court is supposed to rule on the whole matter perhaps as early as today.

Dear Mr. Mullings:
We are having a little trouble keeping all this straight in our minds. They're both named "Viktor?" And are you saying that Yanukovich or Yushchenko is the good guy? And just what was nature of the "irregularities?"
Signed,
The Palm Beach County Board of Elections
Yes, well, I have one word for you: "Butterfly."

Romania is voting as we speak. Romania is currently ruled by the same guys who ran the show during the Communist days. They simply renamed themselves the "Social Democratic Party." The opposition party, the "Justice and Truth Alliance," is considered to be more centrist.

I wonder if their party slogan is: Truth, Justice and the Romanian Way

At issue here are some documents which surfaced last week indicating the ruling Social Democrats were plotting to trash their opponents through misuse of government power. According to the Associated Press:

"In one document, [the] former justice minister allegedly asks whether she should give 'the green light' to a criminal investigation of opposition leader Traian Basescu, who is Bucharest mayor and running for president."

All this led to the quote of the week by a Romanian businessman who said "We are a herd of animals manipulated by an army of villains."

Finally, Iraq is planning to hold an election on January 30, 2005 which will be the first step in building a new government. This election is solely to choose the people who will write the permanent constitution. That has to be approved by referendum and, if it is adopted, will lay down the rules for electing a government in its final form.

The Shiites (who are the majority sect, but have been under-represented in the past) want the elections to go off as scheduled. The Sunnis (who will lose control of the government to the Shiites) want it to be delayed. The Kurds (who are interested in maintaining their semi-autonomous standing in the north) are concerned about the Shiites gaining complete control of the process which might happen if the Sunnis decide to boycott.

It appears that the process to Iraqis is not as important as the outcome - a "Continental Congress" which accurately reflects the makeup of Iraq.

All this to say that Democracy is messy. It is messy whether you've been doing it since 1789 or whether you're going to do it for the first time in 2005.

The trouble with Democracy is, you hold elections. The trouble with dictatorships is � you don't.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: A useful Q & A from the BBC on the Ukraine Election sitch; a remarkable Mullfoto of me on the Appalachian Trail, and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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