Politics, Pride and Personalities

Abstract

There is an alarming tendency in Western international policies — post Cold War, and in the midst of continuing economic recession in most parts of the world — to preach universal remedies in the starkest terms of black and white. On the economic side, the road to liberty and prosperity lies infallibly in reliance on market forces, structural adjustment, and economic stabilisation programmes aimed at reducing the role of government by dismantling the public sector and privatising everything in sight. On the political side it lies in embracing democracy and carrying out, as quickly as possible, ‘free and fair’, multiparty elections. The problem with this engagingly simple — and very pos-sibly simplistic — approach is that when you try to follow the precepts, reality has the uncomfortable habit of getting in the way. There is also the bland and highly tempting assumption that democracy can be equated with the holding of elections. This is a very dangerous assumption. Democracy cannot be created overnight, least of all in places with a long history of authoritarian rule or civil war.