West 'embraces sham democracies'

The US, EU and other democracies are accepting flawed and unfair elections out of political expediency, Human Rights Watch says in its annual report.

Allowing autocrats to pose as democrats without demanding they uphold civil and political rights risked undermining human rights worldwide, it warned.

HRW said Pakistan, Thailand, Bahrain, Jordan, Nigeria, Kenya and Russia had been falsely claiming to be democratic.

How do you pretend to be a form of government? If your country works in a particular way, then that's a reflection of how it's controlled.

Take for example the current situation with the USA. Why are there so many people standing up and shouting out that America is now a fascist state run by a dictator?

If it wasn't then you would hardly hear a word about it.

Yes, you always get you "this government is corrupt" groups, but that's not a reflection of what the government leans towards, just how it is operated internally.

Why are these countries in the report suddenly being shown to be pretending that voting makes a difference as to the type of government?
Surely, after the voting fiasco that got Bush into power is also the same bunch of lies that these other countries are apparently using.

Have these countries taken lessons from the USA?

Winston Churchill said "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those that came before".

I personally find this to be nothing new, hardly breaking news.

To answer your first question, it is easy to call a country's political system a democracy when it is in fact not. The US is a perfect example, we live in a representative republic, not a true democracy. We vote for people to be placed in office then our rolls, at least formally, are over. Once someone is in office they rule on our behalf, we do not control how they vote.

It is even easier for our government to support "democracy" around the world because we tend to be so ill informed we wouldn't ever discover and differences to their claims. Some do, of course, but by and large no one knows, let alone cares.

If people cared enough to be involved our elected political critters would indeed be more careful with their votes. But many of us, maybe even most of us, don't care enough to be involved. We think that just because we've cast our ballots for whomever, or whatever initiative, is on the ballot that strikes our fancy, our part is over. Sorry folks, that's where it's supposed to begin. Oversight. Oversight. Oversight. We, as in average everyday citizens like you and me, are the only ones who can keep the critters honest. We must demand accountability, must, must, must... That starts by attending city council meetings, writing letters, sending emails, generally making sure that they know your out there watching and listening to everything they do, or say. We're watching what and how they vote, and if we don't agree we're not going to be shy about letting them know that.

I live in SE Washington, once upon a time I lived in Columbia county, I was asked to leave several county commissioner meetings because I dared to ask why they, the commissioners were driving county vehicles for personal reasons. Taking household trash to the county landfill in a county pickup, when their own pickup was parked in the driveway of their home. The last time, a little old man stood up and asked the same question, then asked why I was being removed for asking that question, we got no answer, but those commissioner were voted out the following cycle. It can be done. You just have to be willing to do the dirty, possibly even dangerous, work necessary to foment the change you see as necessary.

No, this isn't a new thing, not even close...nor is it only democracies that are prey to it. However, democracies/republics can fix it when it happens. We elect our representative to do the work we don't have time to do, they are our extra set of hands, our tools if you will. We have the right, the duty, the obligation, to make sure OUR tools are doing what we want them to do. If a hammer doesn't work right, we replace it...if the Representative we have doesn't work right...well?

This problem is sooo easy to fix if you and I are willing to step up and be heard. Politician of any ilk cannot ignore loud enough voices.

[edit on 1-2-2008 by seagull]