Phoney democracies

摘要

On The face of it, the past decade has been a splendid time for democrats. All over the world, dictatorships, whether communist or military, have been in retreat; demand for ballot boxes, election monitors and people who know how to run parliaments has been as hot as for Poke-mon cards. For the first time in history, the proportion of the world's population that lives in countries that can claim to be broadly democratic has climbed past 50%. In all, some 120 out of the world's 190 or so states can now plausibly claim to have democracies. If you think, with Winston Churchill, that although democracy has its flaws, it is the least bad political system yet invented, this offers genuine cause for celebration. Sure enough, next week a "World Forum on Democracy" will meet in Poland, organised privately by Freedom House (an American pro-democracy think-tank) and a Polish foundation, but hosted by the Polish government. It will be addressed by such luminaries as Madeleine Albright, America's secretary of state, and Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations. At a parallel meeting, foreign ministers from more than 100 countries will discuss ways of strengthening the democratic cause still further.