Democracy and Experts

I was arguing democracy with a conservative. We had a difference of opinion as to what democracy entails and constitutes. He told me to refer to the experts and historians about its true nature and to know when it fails. The only thing is, he didn't offer me any names of experts and historians. Are there any?

What is interesting to me is that the experts and historians there are on the subject are still learning and debating what democracy is and what makes it work.

Take for example, Larry Diamond, who teaches democracy at Stanford. He is an expert in democracy, at least he thought, until he went to Iraq to help establish it there. Not long after being in Iraq he left in frustration because of the momentous problems facing the building of democracy. One thing he realized is that if there is to be any chance for democracy, fundamentally one needs security and stability. Iraq lacked both big time. Ironically the war made it more unstable. Why didn't he know that beforehand? Other experts like Francis Fukuyama (The End of History) fell into the same trap.

Another thing Diamond and Fukuyama (considered neoconservatives) didn't consider is that democracy can't be parachuted and expected to take hold in countries that have never practiced it before, in a short period of time. In the West it has taken centuries to establish and understand. And the West is still learning. Democracy is contingent on many things accruing simultaneously, like the rule of law, free markets, a free press, dissent, pluralism and so on, just like the human body needs many organs to work properly. Those organs have taken a long time to evolve. So no wonder democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan is having difficulty taking hold.

Democracies like the US and Britain seem to some to be failing. However, it is not that they are failing. They are under pressure to upgrade themselves, which all governing systems have to do if they are going to remain vital and legitimate, especially in a constantly changing world. (Communism collapsed because it remained stagnant.) Governing systems also suffer from ware and tear, and entropy, just like their counterparts in the physical world. If democracy was static it would be a different story. But there are always new circumstances entering its domain that have to be accommodated and adjusted for. If democracy failed in countries like Argentine, where it did several time, it's because they didn't have the institutions or division of power established to insure that it carry on, which isn't the case for the US or Britain.

People, most of them conservatives, often point to ancient Greece as having been a thriving democracy. But as I understand it, it was only a democracy for a limited number of white males of a certain class. And it didn't include women or minorities, like slaves. On hindsight it just looked like an experiment. But conservatives can't explain why it didn't last. Conservatives insist that since democracy failed in those days it can fail today. But democracy is far more robust and resilient today than it was then.

Democracy didn't last in ancient Greece because its existence was tiny and there weren’t enough like minded countries in the world to bolster and support it. In contrast, today we have a critical mass of people who thing democratically. There are plenty of nations practicing democratic principles, enough that if one is on the verge of losing it, it can expect assistance from others to help re-establish it. Globalization would not be possible if democratic principles, like transparency and accountability, between nations were not observed.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was knowledgeable about democracy. Except that in his day there weren't any true democracies around. What was around then was just fledging democracies, like the US and Britain. But he did have an insight, that democracies don't go to war with each other. I can't think of one fully developed democracy that has gone to war with another. Kant may have said this: "The main goal of democracy is to reduce violence". The proof is in the pudding. As democracy has expanded around the world, fewer and fewer nations have gone to war with each other. Perhaps that is the greatest legacy of democracy, that it has brought the world closer together. Kant certainly believed that would be the case.

Democracy is a messy, dissonant procedure. Perhaps that is why conservatives have a problem with it. Democracy isn't black and white. Conservatives tend to think black and white. Democracy requires nuancing. Conservatives have a problem nuancing.