Scarica essay about democracy e più Appunti in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! Is democracy not for everyone? The number of democratic states around the world has been rationally climbing over years, including countries previously considered unlikely to become democratic such as: communist states in Eastern Europe, Muslim-majority countries or African countries like Mali. However, in recent times, this optimistic trend has seen some serious turnarounds; several studies have made clear that it is possible to introduce democracy in almost every country, yet, this theory is extremely controversial: How can countries that became democracies not let the autocratic power overcome? First of all, it is important to give an overview of what democracy really means. A democracy is a form of government in which power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation including free elections. The main features of a democracy are freedom and equality. However, these features are also the reason why some countries cannot keep up with the democratic influence, indeed, it is questionable that democracy promotes and provides peace. Since 2001, the USA have been trying to promote democracy in the Middle East by creating specific strategies and putting a lot of effort in the success of the process. Previous top-down approaches include using diplomatic pressure on the regime in order to implement reforms and have also consisted of military involvement to establish a democratic government. Nonetheless, this promotion has resulted in heavy costs for the US and significant damage to the selected countries. After the 9/11 attacks, The USA went to Afghanistan to wage a necessary war of self-defense but later, the former president Bush announced that the US had the mission to make Afghanistan a democratic government, increasing the military involvement in the country. The UN-sponsored Bonn Conference of 2001 established the foundations of the Afghan republic, reinstating the 1964 Constitution as the basic law and choosing Hamid Karzai as the political leader. Even though it had democratic elements, it was an authoritarian document designed purely to provide citizens some breathing room. Hamid Karzai, preferred a system of strong control because it allowed him to concentrate his power, going therefore against the main features of democracy. In 2004 a Council promulgated a new basic law that was different from the 1964 Constitution most significantly in calling for a democratically elected president that had much more power than the parliament. The first elections happened in 2004, and they were also the first ones accused of being rigged. By 2014, the Afghan state had almost no legitimacy, and violence marked the country again. Taliban gained ground and from May 2021, district after district fell to the Taliban as the American troops left Afghanistan. In closing, the American efforts were useless, they only contributed to the collapse of a country. When they first invaded Afghanistan, they found a fragmented society whose regions had distinct experiences and allegiances formed from decades of conflict and instead of incorporating those differences they decided to enforce a democracy. This was just an example of a country were democracy have been imposed but has been abolished, the problem is not the impossibility of making a country democratic but the methods and the real intentions. Moreover, it is impossible to expect something to change just involving military interventions.
