America’s ‘Big Tent’ for Democracy

The Summit for Democracy, held under the auspices of U.S. President Joe Biden, is one facet of the liberal West’s deeply flawed approach to understanding the world’s problems. Uncle Biden is holding a virtual summit for a total of 110 countries that have satisfied America’s standards for democracy. Among such countries are Pakistan, Iraq, Brazil and the Philippines. This summit is more like a ship or a big tent that America has anchored in the global sea for those seeking shelter from the very high waves of isolation surrounding them.

If elections are the criterion by which American legitimacy is conferred, then this criterion is flawed. Several countries with electoral systems in place have been excluded from the summit. This has been the case with Turkey and Hungary. Indeed, neither the Russian Federation, home to the famous State Duma, nor China, home to the National People’s Congress, has been invited.

Hence, the criterion is whether the countries in question follow the American political-economic program, provided that the requirements for some election cosmetics and accessories of democracy are also met.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the Biden summit as an American attempt to “privatize the very word ‘democracy.'” In Al-Hurrah, Urayb al-Rantawi wrote, “Observers across various continents have the right to speculate whether this summit is connected to the war on Huawei or Nord Stream 2. Observers also have the right to regard the summit as a means to circumvent the Belt and Road initiative or Russia’s rise on the international stage.”

Moving away from how Washington and the West politicize democratic mottoes and formalities, we pose a question that goes to the heart of the intuitively obvious definition: Are elections the only form of democracy, and if we go beyond democracy, are they the only form of justice and good governance? Are elections the only path, to the exclusion of any other? Is form held sacred at the expense of content?

In his article posted by Al-Sharq al-Awsat, entitled “States of Turmoil and the Inability To Embrace the New,” the well-known Lebanese thinker and researcher Radwan al-Sayyed expressed bewilderment at this Western intransigence on the matter. Al-Sayyed said, “The ideology of elections has long controlled the minds of Europeans and Americans, yet elections have failed everywhere they have been tried. One of the main reasons for this failure is that the parties that have dominated during the past decade or two and have gathered around them a large following of both armed and unarmed supporters do not wish to relinquish power and regard elections as their biggest enemy.”

The world accommodates all kinds. Justice, a life of dignity and access to opportunities, development, education and health care are the goals that everyone aspires to achieve, or at least everyone outside America — i.e., most of the global population — along with every government or institution working to achieve those same goals. What is happening puts the term “democracy” at risk of becoming a platitude, just as the concept of climate and environmental protection is being trivialized today for political and economic ends. Speaking of which, have you seen any of the zealous environmental organizations stage a demonstration or a rally at sea to prevent the Houthi-captured Yemeni tanker, FSO Safer, from spilling oil into the Red Sea and polluting marine life?

The crux of the matter is that the beliefs held by American liberals and shaped by their unique historical context and social experiences are not the absolute truth that everyone else roaming this planet must accept and follow.