A Foreign Idea: Why is the U.S. installing democracy around the world as if it were merely a software program?

Democracy 2.1

By Sherry Harbert

If the world would work like computer software, it will be several more decades before Iraq realizes its version of democracy would have fared far better if it ran on a U.N.ix system than the P.C. version of U.S. Democracy 2.1. (That’s Bush, second-term, first year for the non-geeks.) And, to eliminate any gloating, the iPolitic software that features the most friendly and non-inclusive software of all is operating in Russia. Putin is busy finalizing an easy-to-download one-party system. Too bad Yeltsin can’t do the dancing ads.

The U.S. has not been held back by detractors who claim its latest democracy software is nothing but a beta version of neo-conservative ideals. After all, many a software company have released beta versions to test the willing. Past administrations thought it enough to offer its democracy software on a trial basis with only limited editions strategically placed around the world.

President George Bush’s administration has thought it better to issue full versions of its democracy software where it deemed necessary for its own operating system. It is still the trial version, but the current administration packages its democracy as one with yet unrealized updates. And it’s clearly aimed at the willing and unwilling alike.

The U.S. has included these updates in the Iraq package. As long as it is in the national interest and provides financial benefit, updates are easy. President George Bush has offered an additional budget item to fund these updates in 2006. It is the latest in a line of updates formatted for the operating system to function properly.

Yet, it is increasingly apparent that many potential buyers are growing wary of the democracy software. The people of Iraq want to gut the U.S. IT department (don’t think information technology, think international trade). It used to stand for International Terrorism, but that’s becoming such a hard sell in this market. The software has obviously produced enough home-grown terrorism that a new operating system is in order.

The U.S. market for its democracy software is being challenged by an ever growing WI-FIght technology. While only truly available in certain cities, the technology is looking to unseat the land-based variety in the next election cycle.

Fortunately for President Bush, he can proudly point to Latvia as a successful democracy user. And Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga makes a great endorsement.

Latvia installed its own version of democracy in 1991, during the meltdown of the Soviet servers of oppression. Unfortunately, a lot of data (or shall we say, Russian Latvians) were deleted during the conversion into the new democracy program. As such, there are many citizens attempting to input into a system that in many respects plans on operating without them.

This of course causes the democracy software to slow down, much a like the effect of a worm or malware. Unfortunately for those Russian citizens, they are being treated much like a computer virus than an integral part of Latvian society.

They were hoping that the European Union could program them into the system. Having joined their consortium, the citizens hoped to get voice on one of their message boards. But the EU was not interested in such technical matters. They referred to it as an internal problem that only the originating vendor could fix.

The vendor had no interest in fixing the problem. As the apparent vendor, the U.S. only wanted to use the Latvian installation as a marketing tool against its biggest competitor in the region. Having battled with Russia and its IPolitic version of world dominance for decades, the U.S. simply wanted to tweak them at their own game.

This of course did not address any of the software glitches, but then the vendor is not interested in correcting any so-called glitches. Those are simply referred to as operator errors and dismissed.

In his second term, President George Bush has pointed to other burgeoning democracies as an ideal for others. (Buyers beware.)

Democracy is the most plausible means of providing a free and open society. Yet, the notion that anyone can simply install it as automatically as a new software update is hardly a way to build and sustain the vision that culminated in the U.S. Constitution.

Democracy has served as a pinnacle of thought, culture and government. The ideal worked. But that was long ago. Now a shell of that ideal stands in the U.S.. The latest polls show most Americans believe the Legislative Branch is corrupt. The Executive Branch is busy spying on its own people. Didn’t the Soviet Union do that in its very non-democratic version of power? The Judicial Branch is being split into a partisan agency. And the Fourth Branch has been assigned other duties.

If there was ever a need for the next technology bubble it is now.

Contact the author: sharbert@foreigninterest.com

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