Democratic Deficits

Putting their faith in democracy

BBC Radio 4's Analysis: Democratic Deficits was broadcast on Thursday, 21 August, 2003 at 20:30 BST.

Are we blind to democracy's faults?

In advanced industrial nations, the terms liberalism and democracy have become almost synonymous. In the name of liberalism, peace and good government, the international community has promoted the spread of electoral democracy.

Now in Iraq, the US administration is talking of elections within a year.

But democracy cannot be relied upon to protect liberty. As democracy has spread (in the last 10 years alone, the number of electoral democracies has almost doubled) it has become apparent that elections often produce corrupt, illiberal and even anti-democratic regimes.

Those keen to promote liberalism and democracy are sometimes being forced to choose between the two.

In Bosnia-Hercegovina, for example, the international community's High Representative Lord Ashdown, who once so enthusiastically campaigned for more democracy in Britain, has dismissed several elected politicians.

He is unapologetic: "I have not changed my mind about the importance of democracy but there are circumstances in which an absolute pure democratic system isn't appropriate."

Voter apathy

Meanwhile in the more established democracies, voter turnout is falling and disillusion with politics is rising. But so attached are we to the idea of democratic government that more voting - referendums, e-democracy and politics Big Brother style -is being touted as the answer.

Few people, least of all the elected politicians, dare to ask whether there are fundamental problems with democracy itself.

Contributors include:
Lord Ashdown, High Representative in Bosnia-Hercegovina
Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and author of The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad
Professor Larry Diamond, editor of The Journal of Democracy, Professor Gordon Graham, author of The Case Against the Democratic State
Hilary Wainwright, editor of the socialist magazine Red Pepper and author of, Reclaim the State: Adventures in Popular Democracy
Dr Rosemary Hollis, Head of the Middle East Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs
Dr David Chandler, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Westminster Centre for the Study of Democracy.

Presenter: Frances Cairncross
Producer: Innes Bowen
Editor: Nicola Meyrick