Hopes for Democracy

The Bush Administration has made the bringing of democracy to the Arab world a centerpiece of its foreign policy, believing that only the liberalization of Arab society will bring about progress and the abandonment of jihadist ideas. As would be expected, there is significant resistance in the Arab world to such a change. This resistance has come primarily from the existing governments, that obviously are afraid of losing power. At the same time, in the two countries liberated by the US - Iraq and Afghanistan - there is great hope among the people for some kind of consensual government. As Danielle Pletka writes, while democracy is still far off, there has definitely been an increase in discussion about reform of Arab society within the Arab world.

The initial reviews of the current President Bush's push for reform in the Middle East may have been harsh, especially from the region's entrenched powers. Yet in the last few months, the debate, once confined to émigré papers published in London or Paris, has suddenly bubbled up onto the pages of the state-controlled press in the Arab world.
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Notwithstanding the administration's modest approach, democracy is now at the center of debate in Arab capitals. And while some in the United States continue to insist that Arab democracy is the fantasy of a discredited cabal in Washington, an effort to avoid what they assert should be America's only priority - resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - Arab intellectuals don't necessarily agree. The director of Egypt's Al Ahram center for Political and Strategic Studies, Abdel Monem Said, took the issue on himself. "Making reform and human rights contingent upon resolving the Palestinian problem," he said, "confirms what the American neo-cons are saying, that the political regimes harming human rights are using the Palestinian problem in order to divert glances from their own behavior."

While this is undoubtedly good news, it is interesting to see what has been accomplished, in terms of democracy, in Russia. Richard Pipes, one of the leading experts on Russia, has some pretty disheartening poll results from Russia.

They view democracy as a fraud: 78 percent of respondents in a 2003 survey said that democracy is a facade concealing a regime in which real power is exercised by rich and powerful cliques. Only 22 percent express a preference for democracy, whereas 53 percent positively dislike it. Fifty-two percent believe multiparty elections do more harm than good.
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They attach little importance to liberties. Only one in 10 Russians would be unwilling to surrender the freedom of speech, press, or movement in exchange for "order" or stability. A recent poll brought out the stunning fact that fully three-quarters of Russians want the restoration of censorship on the mass media.
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Russians hold the judiciary system in contempt, believing that the courts are thoroughly corrupt. They refer to court proceedings as auctions in which the highest bidder wins out.

Obviously the Arab world is very different from a post-Communist Russia, and the problems that Russia experienced in trying to transform to a democracy need to be taken into account in terms of the reaction of its citizenry, yet there are some similarities. Russia emerged from a repressive, violent, all-powerful and controlling Communist system while most of the Arab world still suffers under a similar system. In order to foster a democracy in the Arab world, it would seem like a good idea to learn the lessons of the transformation in Russia.