Democracy and other mechanisms

A friend emailed me a link to a fascinating article by Salim Mansur which succinctly argues that the reason for the absence of democracy among Arabs is cultural:

The Arab League consists of 21 states and the Palestinian Authority. There is not one single democracy in this collection of Arab states, and the predominant reason for the absence of democracy among Arabs is culture.

Democracy is not merely an election, and a representative party with majority support holding power.

For democracy to work, the prerequisite is a culture in which the people recognizes the “other” — irrespective of how the “other” is defined in terms of ethnicity or religion or gender — as equal, and their interests and aspirations as legitimate.

This recognition of the “other” is missing in Arab culture. The “other” is merely tolerated in a subordinate status and since the “other” in the modern context is unwilling to be consigned indefinitely into an inferior position, the result is the repeated cycle of rebellion and repression in Arab history.

Well that sounds pretty bleak. Why can’t they break this cycle?

Hey, what about Iraq? It’s a member of the Arab League, and isn’t Iraq now a democracy?

Well, if we go by the official New York Times narrative, it sort of is, but really isn’t, because the United States “imposed” democracy on people who really don’t like being free (which means that by freeing them we oppressed them):

Iraq, with a democracy imposed by American force, is still a volatile tableau from which to draw lessons about how to establish a democracy in the Middle East. Insurgent attacks occur daily. Its prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, has raised alarms recently with moves to consolidate power over the judiciary and the security forces. Transparency International ranked Iraq as the fourth most corrupt country in the world last year, just ahead of Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia. Iraq is still more violent for civilians than Afghanistan, and American soldiers still die here, as one did Sunday from a roadside bomb in the south.

“They have some of the institutions of democracy, and habits, but not the mentality,” said one senior diplomat here, who spoke anonymously to maintain relationships with the Iraqi leadership. “Politics in Iraq is zero sum.”

Last year more than 60 percent of Iraqis turned out to vote in parliamentary elections, which were largely deemed free and fair by international monitors. But many critics argue that in a nation where religion is intertwined with politics — outside Parliament last week little green flags flew with the words “Muhammad is our leader” — rights to assemble and express oneself, as well as press freedoms, are under increasing attack.

“Democracy is not just elections, of course,” said Allaa Talabani, a Kurdish lawmaker. “Democracy is belief. It is practice. Elections are just a mechanism.”

I guess we need more mechanisms then. Bad as democracy is, it seems more civilized than alternative mechanisms. Ultimately, learning to tolerate “the other” seems infinitely preferable to chopping off his head.

But then there are the others in the Arab world who disagree. To them, anyone expressing the view that Mansur expresses deserves death:

Salim Mansur is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He is a columnist for the London Free Press, for the conservative blog Proud To Be Canadian and the Toronto Sun, and has contributed to various publications including National Review, the Middle East Forum and Frontpagemag. He often presents analysis on the Muslim world, Islam, South Asia, Middle East.^[1] On two occasions, fatwas (religion edicts) were issued against him, calling for his death.^[2]

Fatwas calling for death don’t sound like a very democratic mechanism to me.

Shouldn’t there at least be some sort of vote?