Egypt and the illusion of democracy

When the “Arab spring” was in full flower there was lots of optimistic talk among politicians and the “chattering classes” of how wonderful it was to see democracy taking root in the Middle East. Now that many of those nations are in full-blown civil wars, including Egypt and Syria, it should have become apparent that democracy was never on the agenda for any of these nations, despite “free and fair elections”, nor could it have been.

I don’t know why we keep falling for the progressive claim that elections means democracy. Repressive regimes like Iran and Russia have been running rigged elections for decades now and no one was under any illusion that these were becoming “democratic” nations. Why should we think it would be any different in the Middle East? In fact, democracy requires a whole set of cultural preconditions, including a real rule of law, enforced legal protection of property rights, enforced legal restrains on the government, and dozens of others.

Nations which are tribal in organization, imbued with ancient ethnic and religious hatreds within their populations, in which nepotism and bribery are a way of life, and used to authoritarian rule are nowhere near ready to try democracy, and an election doesn’t change anything.

This is, I think, another example of looking at the world through our own cultural myths rather than seeing it the way it really is.