I just returned from the latest ministerial meeting of the Community of Democracies, an intergovernmental organization of democracies and democratizing countries with a stated commitment to strengthening and deepening democratic norms and practices worldwide. Uniquely, the CD is composed of both a governmental component and a non-governmental component of civil society organizations, and the two meet together in biennial ministerials.
Though this year’s theme, Implications of the Economic Crisis on Global Democracy Promotion, is certainly timely, much of the buzz at the conference was generated by the participant list. The NGO Steering Committee takes the CD’s definition of “democracy or democratizing country” quite seriously –if everyone’s included, then what sets this community apart from any general UN meeting? –and weighs in with recommendations to the host country (Portugal this time) on whom to invite. Thus when Angola was not only invited but given a place on the agenda, the NGO community was not pleased. It worried that the wrong message was being sent to Angola: that the government was on the right track and its local civil society needn’t push too much.
The NGOs’ fears came home when the Minister from Angola took the podium to declare, “When the Community of Democracies was inaugurated in 2000 in Warsaw, we [Angola] were struggling with our own democracy. Now, here in 2009, we have fulfilled the requirements necessary to be recognized as a democracy on the world stage.” All done and thanks very much, right? But the stats on Angola are hardly that of a healthy democracy:
Freedom House rating: Not Free, with a poor 6 on a 7-point scale for political liberties, a marginally better 5 for civil liberties, and no change in either of these figures for the past 3 years.
Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index: a miserable 1.9 on a scale of 0-10, worsening even from 2.2 in previous years and ranking 158th out of 180 countries—just behind paragons such as Iran, Syria and Tajikistan and marginally better than Zimbabwe.
Doing Business Data: over 2 months to open a business, nearly a year to deal with licenses or to register property, and 3 years to enforce a contract, all with multiple procedures involved.
Economic Freedom Index: 162nd out of 179 countries, with reasonable figures on primarily oil-based trade (77 on 100 pt scale) pulling up the low ratings for corruption (22/100) and investment (20/100)
There were other countries over which there was disagreement about inclusion in the community, but Angola was most visible. The response from the organizers, who invited not only Angola, but Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Haiti, Kenya, Liberia, Malaysia, and Thailand (the first 3 were recommended not to be invited, the others to be invited as observers), was that inclusivity is a central principle of democracy, so everyone should be part of it.
So, is this inclusivity run amok? Are there other democratic principles that excessive inclusivity might undermine? What do you think?
Published Date: July 15, 2009