TEAM DEMOCRACY GO!!

That is one of the famous images from the Iraqi elections. Some felt that by voting and therefore embracing democracy, the Iraqi people were saying," yes, please. We'll take you're Western systems of government, stop attacking your soldiers, and govern ourselves." Clearly not.

What went wrong? Bush and his hawks claimed again and again that they were bringing democracy to the middle east. Surely job done, then. Conventional wisdom equates democracy and elections with progress, from African states to former Soviet nations, free and fair elections are applauded world round as the final steps into the fold of liberal democracies.
Yet, elections in these regions are rairly free and fair, and even when they are, accusations to the contrary seem to fly fast, and violence is almost always a side effect to polling day.

Again I ask, what goes wrong? Democracy is supposed to cure the lust for violence. Show your distaste with a ballot, not a machete.
The problem is, quite simply, that elections do not equal democracy.

2008 is set to be a year of elections. The headliner is of course, the USA. Now whether or not an entrenched two party system and a baffling electoral college system amounts to democracy is definitely a question, but for another time perhaps. Elsewhere in the world, Putin will send his country to the polls, completely confident that he will retain his Tsar-like grip on power. Democratic? The pains of the Kenyan election will continue to shock and depress viewers for at least a few weeks into the new year, either until calm returns, or the news networks get bored.(place your bets) Taiwan will elect a new parliament in January, and a new President in May. Will the quiet, ignored and somewhat ineffective push for nationalism die out in the predicted return of the mainland favouring Kuomingtang party. In the year of the Red Olympics, these elections could cause some fire works. Pakistan is, of course, set to hold elections in February. Surprising as it may sound, Zimbabwe will hold elections this year. All branches of the government will be elected in March. Also in March, good old friend of the west, Iran will hold its elections.

What does this show? Apart from promising some interesting reading in the coming months, all 6 examples show that elections by no means equal democracy. Most of those countries lack a real opposition. Pakistan lacks democracy down to the very grass roots, with the parties run by dynasties and feudalism running strong. In Taiwan the will of the people seems depressingly toothless, as 7 years after electing nationalists to parliament, Taiwan remains ignored by the UN and kept under the Chinese thumb. Tribe still beats economic views, unfortunately, in most African nations and the world over we see that elections are no obstacle to power retaining power.

Quite clearly, elections are not the fast and easy cure for despotism or tyranny. What should we try next?