Promoting democracy abroad

In a speech earlier this week entitled 'The Democratic Imperative' foreign secretary David Miliband re-asserted Britain's role in bringing democracy to other countries, using military power if necessary.

In his response in the Guardian, Simon Jenkins was wise to propose that if Miliband wants to honour Britain's pride in democracy he should "prove it works at home better than any other [by] working tirelessly to refresh it" (This zeal for intervention is imperialism in new clothes, Guardian, February 13, 2008). Despite many such attempts, the reality is that New Labour's promotion of democracy abroad grows in proportion to the British electorate's disengagement with contemporary politics and democracy. And its promotion of freedom abroad is in stark contrast to its cavalier attitude to British citizens' hard won freedoms at home.

Of course, when one can't inspire one's citizens at home one can understand the attraction of trying to impress them by making grand gestures towards the oppressed masses abroad. The oppressed masses have no way to answer back, but inspiring them is just as difficult when the example one sets at home is so languid.

Timothy Garton Ash is less substantive in his response, but he makes a good point:

The imposition of democracy, or what we claim to be democracy, following a military intervention made mainly for other reasons, is quite different from the peaceful promotion of democracy - which, as Miliband himself observed, necessarily "grows in the soil of the nation" concerned. It's the difference, if you will, between supplying fertiliser to nourish fragile grass and laying Astroturf over conquered ground. (To strengthen Miliband's case for democracy, drop Iraq, add Europe, Timothy Garton Ash, Guardian, February 14 2008

In letters in response, Lancet editor Dr Richard Horton points out that "The critical underpinning idea of human development, as articulated by economists such as Amartya Sen, is not democracy but freedom... We can have lack of liberty in democracies. And liberty can still exist in non-democracies". Peter Emerson suggests we need a better definition of terms. And Jeanne Warren notes that "Tony Blair's supposed mentor, the philosopher John Macmurray, said the exact opposite, that there is no moral imperative to impose a way of life on others by force". (Letters: Democracy is a dangerous export, Guardian, February 14 2008)