Sunday, May 11, 2008
While the U.S. is busy exporting democracy to Iraq, it should be importing some best democratic practices from the rest of the world, too.
Aug 6, 2004 | America's adventure in Iraq has produced, among other things, a new catchphrase: "exporting democracy." It's an odd term, with a crassly commercial timbre that rings hollow. How can we export something as intangible, as noble, as democracy? It's not the same as peddling bananas or microchips.
The real problem with the term, however, is that it is incomplete. It describes only half of the equation. The other half is the inescapable fact that we live in the era of globalization, where goods and capital flow across borders effortlessly, with the click of a mouse. So, logically, if the United States is now in the business of exporting democracy, shouldn't we be importing some as well? Isn't that what free trade is all about?
From now on, we need to think of democracy as an import-export business. It may sound blasphemous to some, but plenty of ideas out there are worth importing -- ideas about how to encourage voter turnout, hold leaders accountable, reach consensus, and more. True, these ideas weren't invented in the United States, but does that really matter? Smart companies, the kind that survive in difficult times, are always on the prowl for good ideas, no matter what their source. No less a red-blooded capitalist than Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, says, "Good ideas are meant to be borrowed." If it's good enough for GE, I say, it's good enough for America.
Many Americans -- and certainly those in the Bush administration -- believe our brand of democracy is a finished product, the end of the line after 228 years of evolution. It's now a job for the marketing department. Yet when it comes to nearly every other area of our lives (with the significant exception of religion), we believe in unlimited horizons and infinite room for improvement. Nothing is ever finished. When IBM introduces its latest laptop, nobody declares the end of technology. Yet when it comes to questions of democracy, we blithely declare the end of history.
The problem stems from how we view the rest of the world. Foreign countries these days fit into one of two categories: threats in need of vanquishing or charity cases in need of rescuing. (Or, in the strange case of Iraq, both.) That leaves little room for us to learn from other countries' experiences. Why not view the world as a kind of laboratory of ideas -- ideas about how to, say, provide healthcare to all our citizens, or hold our elected leaders accountable, or encourage people to vote in the first place?
Roughly 100 countries can be labeled democracies, far more than just a quarter of a century ago. Some, such as Vladimir Putin's Russia, are illiberal democracies, Potemkin villages with all of the trappings and none of the substance of a real democracy. But surely among the rest there is something worth importing. Canada and Europe are obvious places to mine, but even India, that most improbable of democracies, can teach us a thing or two about the democratic arts. The Japanese could teach us the art of the apology. Corporate executives and government officials regularly take responsibility for their actions -- and the actions of those in their stead. When something goes wrong, they don't need to be coerced into resigning.
Here are some other democratic ideas worth importing, or at least worth considering. None are perfect, and I'm not suggesting that they should be imported wholesale. Hopefully, though, they can contribute to a much needed debate about what kind of democracy we want -- for Iraqis, yes, but also for ourselves.
1. Getting out the vote
The most basic measure of the vitality of a democracy is citizen participation: Do people exercise their right to vote? On this score, America's performance is abysmal -- and getting worse. In the last presidential election, only 51 percent of the voters cast a ballot, compared with 63 percent in 1960. (For midterm elections, the figures are even more dismal.) Virtually every other democracy in the world does better than us. The United States ranks 114th out of 140 in voter turnout since World War II, behind countries such as Uganda and Bangladesh and just barely ahead of Nigeria.
We could examine the myriad ways in which the United States has gone wrong -- or we can flip the question on its head and ask, What are other nations doing right? The answer is surprisingly simple. First of all, most nations make it much easier for their citizens to vote. Virtually no other country requires voters to register -- a process, it seems, designed to discourage people from voting. In most of the democratic world, when someone turns 18, he or she is automatically eligible to vote. And in most of the world, Election Day is either held on Sunday or declared a national holiday. People don't need to sneak away to polling booths during their lunch break. There is no reason the United States couldn't do the same. Such a simple change is bound to increase voter turnout by at least a few percentage points.
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