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Por LARRY HUFFORD Professor titular de Ciência Política na Universidade de St. Mary, San Antonio, Texas. |
Instant Democracy
I have served as an official election observer in Guatemala and Nicaragua. The most disturbing part of these experiences was to observe the involvement of consultants “teaching” these transitional societies to conduct presidential campaigns on the U.S. model. The National Endowment for Democracy funds the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) to “spread democracy” in nations transitioning from authoritarianism to democracy. These Institutes pay political scientists to conduct focus group and opinion polls, media professionals to design and produce mail outs, radio and televisions advertisements, and consultants who advise presidential candidates on strategy and tactics. To state it bluntly, the same folks who have brought the United States substance free post modern campaigns and elections are spreading this disease to fragile societies in transition. The United States view is that holding an election instantly places a nation in the democratic category. I call them post-modern democracies, that is, image over substance. However, citizens of the United States need only look in the mirror. The current presidential campaign has sunk to a new low in the lack of substance. Campaigns in the United States are now designed to win elections, not to govern the country. The United States has an “in your face” culture. Just witness behavior in professional sports or behavior on reality TV. We have in your face religion, news and politics. Substantive issues are not discussed. Presidential campaigns focus on the destruction of the person representing the opposition. In U.S. politics today one has enemies instead of adversaries. One can compromise with adversaries, but enemies represent evil and must be destroyed. The Lincoln-Douglas debates lasted eight hours. The candidates didn’t need a team of attorneys to write a 32-page document detailing all the conditions and parameters of the “debate”. Today, presidential debates are so tightly structured it is a misnomer to call them debates. Televised political advertisements are about connecting emotionally with voters, not about truth. In a postmodern campaign, image always trumps substance. Research shows consumers digest negative information more quickly, and retain it longer, than positive messages. Negative advertising works. On the other hand, political dialogue implies that one speaks to be understood and listens to understand. Civility is the antithesis of an in your face culture. The one good note in the exporting of democracy is that the constitution writers have not “given” any transitional society an electoral college. It is hard to know if George W. Bush and John Kerry are campaigning for President of the United States or Governor of Ohio. Only 12 to 15 states nationally are competitive in presidential races. This means the other states rarely, if ever, see presidential candidates. House of Representative districts throughout the country have been gerrymandered to the point that only 10 percent of districts nationally are competitive. It should be obvious to the most casual observer that the United States is not a healthy democracy. The U.S. electoral campaign model should not be exported. To do so will only breed a quick dissatisfaction with democracy in fragile transitional societies. At best it will lead to democratic authoritarianism. The U.S. wants to hold elections in Afghanistan and Iraq before security has been extended throughout the countries, before stable, viable economies have been created and where ethnic and religious rivalries are paramount. Campaigns and elections held too quickly, poorly structured and organized in a postmodern fashion, lead voters to choose candidates on the basis of ethnicity, religion and/or class. This is not a firm foundation for a stable, healthy democracy. Democracy can only succeed if it has a strong participatory base where citizens have ownership in a transparent process. If citizens of the United States do not demand future campaigns of substance our children will soon live with only the image of democracy. The way to succeed in exporting democracy is to create a healthy democracy at home. To accomplish this, citizens must transcend post modern politics. Substance must trump image. Dialogue and civility must become central to political debate. Citizens of the United States must reject the current in your face culture. |
[Tradução: Eva Paulino Bueno]
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The United States
method of exporting “democracy” is to have top down regime change,
have U.S. lawyers and political scientists write a constitution and
quickly organize an election. Instant democracy!