After The Twitter Revolution: Democracy?
Published by Karen Gross on February 4, 2011 in US Politics-
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Who fills the vacuum left behind by an ousted dictator?
The people’s revolutions taking place in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen have been for the most part applauded by the Americans and Canadians. We enjoy the freedoms of democracy, and we sympathize with people who live under the rule of a dictator. We love our technology and all the social networking that we have because of our technology. So it is not surprising that we celebrated the success of the “Twitter Revolution” in Tunisia, and we are waiting with baited breath for Egypt’s Mubarek and Yemen’s Saleh to step down. For these two dictators to offer to recuse themselves from the next elections is not good enough.
What I haven’t heard much of on the news is what will happen to the governments of these countries once the disgraced leaders do step down. We seem to think that as soon as the dictator is out, democracy will take over. After all, the people who are able to use Facebook and Twitter to organize a revolution should be able to rule themselves, right? The first settlers in Canada and the United States were able to form democratic governments, right?
We tend to forget our history lessons. It took our settlers several generations to establish stable governments. Watch any movie with a “western” genre – towns were ruled by whoever had the biggest gun.
A democratic government with officials who are elected by the people and who work for the people needs to have some sort of plan for who will take over when and if they can get the dictator to leave. Most dictators got to power in the first place by stepping in when the last dictator was ousted.
We can take a lesson from the failed people’s revolution in Iran 1979. Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was the first president of Iran after the Iranian revolution overthrew the shah in 1979. He lives in exile outside Paris. He wrote these words of warning for the people in Egypt:
“Now there is no turning back. The struggle will bring true democracy if those who made the revolution persist. If they fall back, strongmen are waiting in the wings to seize power out of the vacuum. Then, as in Iran, the people will have to start all over again to regain their freedom.”
Curiously enough.
Thank you for the article
It is worrying to watch the scenes of chaos in these countries. I don’t think those trying to overthrow governements ever really think about what will happen afterwards. An interesting post.
Christine
Excellent article Karen and you are so right. What will happen once this government moves out. Sometimes it is better to deal with the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. Great write Karen.
Thanks for sharing
Do you think most of them really know what they are doing and if it will really makes things better?
That’s not necessarily true. Oh, I am not denying that it could happen–indeed, it could. However, when you come right down to it, a democracy is guaranteed or built on by socio-political institutions that impede decision making at the top while representing various interest groups. Examples are professional associations, labor unions, churches, lobbies, political parties, etc. Now, here is the interesting thing. Egyptian society has all these albeit in nascent form. Plus there is of course the well-established army and business community. The real question will be the 6 months after Mubarak leaves (as I think there’s a good chance he will). Will those institutions be allowed to blossom and express themselves in a bureaucracy or not? If the former, I think you may yet get some sort of reform in Egypt.
Interesting article. Thank you.