We live in “a” democracy and we “have” democracy” in our country. Or so popular views tend to describe the western model of parliamentary democracy and so political and media elites would have us believe. Seen in historical terms, meaning how current political systems evolved, which struggles, debates, processes and compromises have led to a particular state of democracy in a specific country, the definition is far less simplistic. Just to uphold existing civil liberties and established constitutional rights is an increasingly difficult endeavor. If one sees democracy as a process that requires continuous fostering and action-oriented individual as well as collective commitment, then there can be no satisfaction derived from returning to a polling booth once every four years.
A cursory look around the globe shows how the established democracies are increasingly turning into static bureaucracies that more often than not fail to deliver on the promise equality, fairness and justice for all. One reason for such inadequacy is rooted in partisan interests that succeed in preventing constitutional reform. In the absence of such reform, democracy corrodes, since rust indeed never sleeps. Just a few days ago in Zambia, democracy was distorted to a procedural formality. The ageing constitution there requires a simple majority rather than an absolute majority of the popular vote for a candidate to be able to claim and assume the Presidency. Thus, sixty percent of Zambian voters are set to be ruled by someone they did not vote for.
In the United Kingdom, since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and to this very day in 2002, parliamentary democracy is based on a first-past-the-post electoral system. This system allowed a reactionist Margarit Thatcher to propel the social and economic decline of the United Kingdom for the benefit of free-market profiteers. The same electoral system is failing Canada, where global competitiveness, administrative effectiveness and general living standards are gradually declining in comparison not only to other OECD countries.
The absence or manipulation of constitutional term limits on the chief political executive in the formal democracies of Africa has allowed “elder statesmen” who are well beyond retirement age to retain the Presidency. Some of these leaders truly do not seem to have an expirary date, no matter how far the decay of once prosperous societies has proceeded. As Argentina is spinning from five Presidents in three weeks, Zambia is trembling under post-electoral shockwaves in response to a severely contested third President, only the third in as many decades from taking office. The tumultuous events the USA has experienced since September 11, have practically ended all debate on the peculiarities of the presidential elections of 2001.
