NOT ALL VOTES ARE LEGITIMATE, BUT ONLY VOTES ARE:

A time of testing for global democracy: Votes this month could mark advances in the Middle East, but history shows that democracy requires time, commitment. (Howard LaFranchi, 1/04/05, The Christian Science Monitor)

As the world has watched Ukraine, and prepares to turn its focus to the Middle East - Palestinians will elect a leader to succeed Yasser Arafat next week, and Iraqis are to hold their first open multiparty elections later this month - several larger lessons of what makes democracy take root and work are again being learned by the world, experts say. Among them:

• That democratization, unlike consumerism, can't be built on imports, but must be a home-grown process springing from fervent domestic desires.

• That people power isn't enough, but rather it is institutions - and especially a judiciary and legislative branch capable of standing up to an overpowering executive - that make a true democracy.

• That elections, while important as measuring sticks and for encouraging participation and a sense of stakeholding, do not alone make a nation democratic.

Afghanistan, Ukraine and Palestine mitigate against all three of these.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 3, 2005 5:47 PM