Unnatural Democracies

For weeks now we've been hearing rumors that Thomas Jefferson has been sighted in the Middle East. First he was seen in Egypt, then there was a smattering of rumors throughout the region before another confirmed sighting in Libya. We can only hope that he will visit the United States before fading away again, to refresh our collective memory of the origins of our own democracy. A memory which has apparently grown quite dim.

Following the media coverage and the political banter about the recent populist uprisings in the Middle East might lead the casual observer to conclude that being able to vote in a democratic election is all that it takes to solve the problems of extremism in that part of the world. Unfortunately, enlightenment is not found in the voting booth. In the late 1920s a fledgling political party began to rise to power through populist appeal and democratic elections. In May of 1928 the Party gained its first 12 seats of representation, about 2.8% of the total. Through activism against the establishment and populist agitation the Party would secure 107 seats in elections by 1930. By 1932 the Party would be voted into the majority and Adolf Hitler would be in position to become Chancellor of Germany, through a democratic process. The rest is, as they say, history.

All democracies are not created equal and democracy in itself is not inherently good or evil. It is simply a system to be bent to the will of those that use it. For many in the West, and particularly in America, there is a tendency to conflate democracy with individual liberty and Western values. It is common to view democracy itself as the foundation of liberty in America. In reality it is the first principles, the philosophy, values and even the morality that the founding fathers forged into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that form the foundation of American democracy. The presence of such a foundation in the Middle East has not been revealed.

At the philosophical heart of America's founding lies the concept of Natural Law. The idea that man's rights come from Nature, or Nature's God and not from man. This is the seed from which all of America's founding principles grew. It was a novel concept at a time when rights were granted by rulers and religious leaders. The commitment to the idea of individual liberty and the right of self determination was something new and uniquely American in its implementation. For the first time a government and a society would conform around the rights of the individual. Though the underlying philosophy was not new and was not limited to America, it would be first put into practice as an American experiment.

The foundation on which democracies will be built in the Middle East is not the Natural Law foundation of American democracy. Democracies in Egypt, Libya and other places in the Middle East will be built on foundations that are alien to us in the West. Societies will not conform to the rights of individuals in that part of the world. But democracy can conform to the political needs of leaders there. Since the Europeans divided up the Middle East and turned it over to local leaders at the end of the colonial period there have been efforts underway to re-unify those countries into a single Islamic State. The populist appeal of this idea is not new in that part of the world. That appeal has been used by dictators and leaders before and it is no accident that the current populist activism has associations with an organization that seeks to unify the muslim nations. If the Muslim Brotherhood is able to use democratic means to establish itself as a majority Party throughout the Middle East, it is not difficult to foresee a scenario in which they succeed in their goals of reunification.

We may be about to find out what democracy in the Middle East will ultimately look like. But those rumors that Thomas Jefferson has been sighted in the Middle East should be taken with a healthy amount of skepticism. Particularly in light of the evidence that he may not even be that recognizable to some of the name droppers that claim to know him.