Take your thumb to democracy

DENV And perhaps the most misleading XXI news was that of the Iraqis laughing until they showed the index finger colored in purple that gave way to their voting in the January 2015 elections. For many, it was the first time they had done so.

What was meant by these images was that democracy had finally reached Iraq. A system without elections cannot claim democracy. So, for many people, seeing those images of an acceptable process [purpled color prohibited voters from voting more than once] was sufficient proof that things had changed.

But democracy is an extremely complex system, and free elections are only part of it. Lack of elections certainly means a lack of democracy. However, this does not mean that if that statement is overturned, it becomes true. So, that holding elections also means the presence of democracy. Elections are a necessary but insufficient condition of democracy; even sustainable institutions that embody democratic values are required.

Today, more and more countries hold elections, and yet democracy is at great risk. Throughout developed and developing countries, violation of public trust and failure to protect democratic institutions are changing the situation.

The attacks on democratic institutions are not limited to countries having little democratic experience. They can be seen everywhere, including in the world's oldest democracy, the United States.

In the West, praising the virtues of democracy in others has been regarded as a proselytizing secular religion, complete with the threat of fire and sulfur for those who did not embrace confidence in democracy. But the teachings of the developing world were never usable.

Years ago, after an event where an international philanthropist was legalizing democracy for hours before he was flying to music on his private plane, a prime minister from the Balkans located in public asked me, “What am I supposed to do with this? As the prime minister faced daily sensitive issues dealing with ethnic minorities, the bakers were offering him the advice of taking-or-leter, for which they would never be responsible.

Now, the pendulum has fallen in the opposite direction, especially in consideration of the foreign policy of the United States of America. Under President Donald Trump's administration, the U.S. government is not tired of dealing with democracy anymore.

To be sure, this partly reflects the tiredness of decades of Western promoting democracy. But it's more than that. Democracy is threatened directly at the location where it should have had the deepest cultural and political roots.

Trump does not just want to avoid repeating failed policies of the past, as he says. He and his supporters have also seized the fundamental institutions that are based on all American democracy, including courts, judicial branch, independent media and more than that.

Nineteenth-century military official in Prussus and theorist Carl von Klausewitz have spoken correctly of a period of total war that would reach less than a century after his death. What he did not address was the arrival of a total policy from which all institutions of society would be printed in the service of totalitarian ideological difficulties. America is now in the midst of such a crisis, and the way we manage it will inform us how our countries can face similar difficulties of their own.

America's domestic crisis is preventing it from shaping its traditional international role as a source of institutional stability and as agents of change. During the post-war period, the United States has helped collective security through NATO and other institutions.

Unfortunately, Trump has little respect for this legacy, or for the tradition of America to be optimistic and believe in its institutions. He either does not understand or care that the American system of government was the main source of global prestige in the country.

Even now, America's silence is deafening. In Syria, the US has given ground to others, although war there can determine the future for Middle Eastern Muslims. Meanwhile, the Trump administration's refusal of the trans-ocenic agreement and investment pacts has also confused its friends and amazed its biggest rivals. State Department, no matter what his boss, Rex Tillerson, has lost global power. And without a pro-active diplomacy, the US will soon be eclipsed internationally by China.

But Trump won the election in 2016, taking his finger as if it were the only thing important. In the coming year, it will be up to Americans to take their finger and make it clear that democracy is worth a lot, much more.

Subtitles by: Periscope