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Marina Ottaway. "Is Democracy the Answer?" Chapter 33 of Leashing the Dogs of War.
Democracy has been touted as a panacea and also as the only valid form of governance since the end of the Cold War. The power vested in the industrialized economies has proffered enormous political clout since the Cold War began. That power has been used to help mend fractured nation-states: those emerging from a Civil War or an authoritarian regime. The international community, which is comprised of top political power brokers, systematically imposes democracy on weak or unstable nations without giving credence to any other form of government.
Belief in democracy can therefore take on an almost sinister form. Coerced democracies have a poor track record of survival, though. Democratic forms of government, defined by their public elections, take root best in nation-states with strong and well-defined national identities and not those outlined by arbitrary political borders. Artificial nation-states that are created by international power brokers do not take into account the cultural, ethic, linguistic, and regional divisions within a territory let alone the preferred form of self-governance.
The specific type of democratic government the international community presumes is best for the world is a majoritarian one. Countries recently emerging from civil war are unlikely to coalesce along lines of national identity and therefore unable to ascribe to a majoritarian democracy. Peace brokers and mediators must be more flexible and open in their approach toward conflict resolution. By focusing on the creation of social and political institutions that can help foster cohesiveness within a region, foreign relations specialists will have a far easier time of negotiating a lasting and meaningful peace. Minority groups must be included in all parts of the process, and ethnic and religious issues must be taken into account. Democracy is best achieved organically. Belief in the efficacy of democracy is not unfounded. However, the imposition of a democratic form of government is an ineffectual means of resolving conflicts.
With this approach in mind, it is impossible to consider a viable implementation of Western democracy in the conditions in which there are few, if any, common points to relate moral values and norms to. Despite this current inability of Western countries to export democracy, there are certain underlying factors that could be taken into account in future attempts. Failure notwithstanding, it is clear that the future of the world
South Africa -- Past and Present Rather than a mere struggle between black and white Marina Ottaway suggests that the conflicts in South Africa that hampered the nation's transition from apartheid to a fuller participatory government lay in the factionalism present in all of the representative bodies involved in the negotiations. (Ottaway, 1993) Although Ottaway's text ends before the configuration of the final ruling government body that governs South Africa, many
Culturally, the Bush administration failed miserably at understanding what needed to be done within the Iraqi cultures. For example, Diamond notes that the U.S. tried to build security through an Iraqi police for4ce but that effort "withered from haste, inefficiency, poor planning, and sheer incompetence." Cops were rushed on the job with "too little training, insufficient vetting, and shamefully inadequate equipment" (Diamond, 2004). The U.S. lacked "an effective political strategy