I’ve had this question rolling around in my head for the last few years: Is democracy always a good thing?

After seeing the headlines that the Palestinians have voted Hamas in as the majority leadership of the Palestinian Authority, I wonder what they are all thinking. I, as an American, am aware that I rarely see unbiased news from the Middle East. Our newscasts typically lean toward American interests and either ignore, misrepresent, or outright lie about what the other side is saying or doing. So, I wonder what news the Palestinians hear on a daily basis. What is printed in their newspapers, and what is spread by word of mouth? It must have been all of these things that led to Hamas being elected to such a majority of Palestinian government.

President George Bush talks about spreading democracy across the globe. He repeatedly says that people want democracy. They want a part in governing themselves. But is this really true? Are there people who either aren’t capable or don’t desire to have a democracy? Are there people that would rather be told what to do and when to do it by their government?

This kind of mentality has grown in recent years; the mentality that the government should take care of the people. That people in the government have supernatural powers or are of such high intellect that they should foresee, prepare for, and/or prevent bad things from happening to the people (i.e. them).

It has been seen in New Orleans, where citizens blamed everyone in government, from Bush to FEMA (but mysteriously didn’t seem to blame New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin or Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco), for not getting to them with their magic wands as soon as the wind speed dropped below 70mph. Why did they trust their government with their lives instead of taking steps to save their own lives?

I believe that this mentality, that someone should always take care of you or at least watch out for your well-being, is growing by leaps and bounds. However, I think that this mentality existed when the founders of this great nation were debating the yet-agreed-upon new Constitution of the United States. They had many debates about who should be allowed to vote. At that time, many of the founding fathers believed that women didn’t have political or governing mindsets; that they didn’t have the same aspirations as men and, therefore, wouldn’t have the chutzpah to make good government officials. To their defense, many women agreed with them. Many women also had the mindset that “the men” should take care of “the women”. This mindset was carried well into the mid-1900’s as mostly unspoken socially acceptable behavior. Sometimes women decided that they wanted more control. Usually they were “put back in their place” by the men in their lives. It was the norm; it was acceptable.

However, while most women today seem to say that they want to at least be equal to men in deciding what happens to them, many women still feel that someone should take care of them. Usually this is the responsibility of the men in their lives. However, sometimes they feel that it is the government’s responsibility to take care of them and look out for them. If the government won’t, then who will?

Switching gears, I wondered if it was possible that a majority of a population would ever decide that they don’t want any real control over their lives? Would such a society choose to live under a dictatorship, theocracy, communist, socialist, or fascist government? Would they truly be happier being told what to do? I think the answer is ‘yes’. I believe that there are people that are happiest when they have a set structure to their lives. They are happy when they are told what they can and cannot do. They are happy when someone else makes all of the decisions and they only have to wait to be told what to do next.

So, this begs the question: Are there any socieities like that in the world today? Would a majority of the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, China, North Korea, or Iran vote to keep their dictatorships or theocracies in place if they had that chance? Are they truly a happy people living under the direction of their government? Perhaps. Will we ever know? Maybe if we ask.

If these people are truly happier under their current government, then why should we try to turn them into a democracy? Why would we want to make a people unhappy, disrupt the entire world order, and spend untold amounts in money, brainpower, and human lives to make the world a worse place to live?

These are questions that we need to ask before we decide to try to make the world a better place by spreading democracy. Maybe some people don’t want it.

–Mark