Democracy by some is seen as the one stop fix for all the ills of the developing world. It is in the poorest regions of the world which have been exploited for years by mis-management that the "free" choice of the people is pushed the most, by the media and the political elite of the developed world.
In the modern world a counties intellect and acceptance into the mainstream of the "global village" is measured on how democratic it is (so we are told), in reality many other factors play a role but that's a discussion for another time. Economic benefits are offered and based on democratic reforms in a particular nation.
The average man in Africa or South East Asia is convinced by the shining lights of "choosing" their political leader and thus they think their destiny. This is the Brand Democracy that the world is exposed to , it's about choice , freedom and a method to exert your will. As the mantra for democracy goes "Power for the people by the people" and so on. In the modern age of 24/7 wall to wall media coverage of even the remotest part of the world, Brand Democracy is pumped out around the globe.
Brand Democracy creates the perception that it's very core is about the people from the richest person right down to the poorest in a society, everyman and woman has a fair and equal choice. However upon closer examination of the implementation of democratic principles and ideas in the real world shows that democracy is more about power than it is the people.
Before I go onto quantify the above statement it is important to understand the reasons for the existence of a political system in layman's terms at least. From my simplistic understanding of the world I would say a political system in essence is their to manage the affairs of it's subjects in a manner which fulfills their basic needs of life, the ruler being ultimately accountable for doing this. The system providing the mechanisms to hold the ruler to his obligations of leadership and ultimately having the power to remove him.
Now to examine Brand Democracy in the modern world. Two very recent examples of exactly the kind of places where Brand Democracy's advocates say that it can perform it's magic shows it falling well short of it's hype.
The first is Pakistan. A country where politics is the life blood of the people, where news events are followed like celebrities are in the Western world, an ideal place to sell Brand Democracy. With elections looming (or they were) the pro-democracy parties were in full flow spouting the mantra of free and fair elections and even food, clothing and shelter, telling the powerless they would have power etc.
The death of the leading candidate for Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto following an attack on the car in which she was travelling, lead to wide spread rioting and disorder. Left without a leader the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) engaged in a selection process for their next Chairman. The result of which is more akin to a monarchy than any semblance of free choice, even though the process is an internal party matter the fact that the late Benazir stipulated who should rule the party after her is not the marketing spiel of Brand Democracy, yet Benazir was seen as the champion of the brand in Pakistan.
The choice of Chairperson for the PPP according to the will of Benazir was Asif Ali Zidari her husband who has passed on the position to his son Bilawal Bhutto Zidari, who is only 19 years old and has no previous experience. The fact that he has spent most of his life outside of Pakistan and seems unable to speak Urdu just makes the choice all the more puzzling. That is before you take into account what really lies at the heart of a 'democratic' struggle , Power. The Bhutto's don't want to give up their reigns of power something which has dogged the politics of Pakistan for decades. So democracy in Pakistan is about power and not the people, Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf and Benazir (and now the new leadership) have something in common their relentless pursuit to get and stay in power.
The second example is that of Kenya. I am not as clued up on the politics of Kenya as that of Pakistan but if you take it as any other African country you can assume it will have it's fair share of power hungry politicians. Kenya has just held elections and I watched the results unfold on Al-Jazzera with one party accusing the other of rigging the votes. The official announcement of the results was delayed after the election commissioner left the platform claiming the results were a little confusing. What transpired after verged on the farcical, members of the opposition party the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) stormed in claiming they had evidence of vote rigging and that the election commissioner himself had changed the results of the election. The election commissioner then announced the results from a locked room with a few journalists there to take the news to the media. The winner Mwai Kibaki of the ruling party left the opposition leader Raila Odinga accusing him of flooding the election commission with his cronies. What followed was the inevitable rioting of the opposition supporters (a carbon copy of Pakistan) scores of people dead, and for what the power of rule.
Democracy is not about serving the people , it's about securing your interests whether you be an individual like Kibaki, a family like the Bhuttos or a nation like America and Britain. The spin of Brand Democracy will tell us that it's all about the choice but what it will fail to tell the people of Pakistan and Kenya is that more important then choice is the accountability of the people you select. The rulers thrust on people by vote rigging, foreign intervention, family based rule or a mixture of the three are never held accountable for their actions, and before someone says the developing world needs true democracy the farcical situation of Kenya and Pakistan can be seen in both America and Britain two bastions of democracy. For Kenya and the accusations of cronies filling the election commission read George Bushes first election where his brother Jed had to effectively bail him out of and get him into power. For Pakistan read Tony Blair and Gordon Brown doing a deal for the next leadership of their party years before being elected.
So my point, well it's simple Brand Democracy cares nothing about the people and all about the power, in the Western world the kick backs are from the likes of Haliburton etc in places like Pakistan the corrupt politicains of the world such as Zidari feed off the positions power brings to them. As for choice democracy isn't the only system in the world that allows free choice of a ruler, but it's the only that that gives the ruler free reign when selected.
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