7/30/98

One of the nice opportunities I get in this job is that I am asked, from time to time, to speak with representatives from other countries to discuss the fundamentals and dynamics of democracy. I have had the privilege of talking with officials from Russia, China, the new Eastern European countries and emerging African countries, just to name a few. As these countries struggle to escape from the shadow of communism, they look for all the help they can get. They are serious about getting off on the right foot in creating a democracy.

This past week I was part of a symposium at the Carter Center that met with Mainland Chinese officials who are trying to get the locals to "buy in" to the concept of VOTING for their government leaders. These exercises are always as informative for me as they are for the visitors. I am continually struck by the fact that the mere concept of democracy is alien to them, made that much more difficult by the language barrier. The idea that a common citizen can actually determine whom their leader will be is unheard of by whole generations. First they must learn the idea, then they must overcome their skepticism, then they must learn how to actually participate. In the meantime, the fragility of the whole experiment is subject to crash because of the impatience of the citizens or by those who would try to prevent this concept from taking hold. In addition, the economic structure of a particular country usually is undergoing a transformation that can cause a great deal of instability, too. While we all applaud this wholesale movement away from communism towards democracy, we must be aware that it is a long way from reality and can fail at the drop of a hat.

The particular problem in China, as opposed to other countries that are experiencing the democratic movement, is that the country is so huge, both geographically and population wise. The mere act of trying to reach these people with the news that this "revolution" is going on takes an extraordinary amount of investment. Once the officials, charged with getting the message out, get to the local provinces, they must educate the natives on these concepts. They have found out that, as in other countries, once the citizens are afforded the opportunity to have a voice in the role of their government, they are "bitten" with the democratic bug and will gladly sacrifice other things in order to participate. The officials in China had allowed for a fifty-year plan to bring about total participation by their citizens! We told them they could expect to chop that in at least half. That, in fact, because of the scenario mentioned above, they literally could not afford to wait that long.

It always impresses me how excited everyone is with the opportunity to be a part of it all. On the other hand, we have gotten so jaded in this country to the point that we have taken these freedoms for granted. It is more than that, however. We have somehow created a new measure of what democracy is. We have come to expect superhuman results from human activity. We have come to expect more from the concept of democracy than even our forefathers anticipated. What we need to do is be more realistic. We need to remember that it is not a perfect system but it is better, even as practiced here in America, than anything else that has been devised. As a matter of fact, only outside influences such as negative media coverage and special interest money keep it from being even better than it is. We must remember also that to have anything less would invite anarchy; anything more would invite dictatorship.