盖尔·拉夫特:民主不是美国专利,中美应打一场民主“选美比赛”(4)

2021-12-11 09:30  观察者网

The Biden administration has effectively divided the world into two halves. Roughly half of the world’s countries were designated as democracies and were invited to his summit, while the other half were found insufficiently democratic to merit an invitation. Indeed, Washington appointed itself to be the appraiser of democracy, and the grader of other countries according to western yardsticks. For example, Turkey, Hungary, Singapore, Serbia and other countries where democratic elections are held regularly were not invited. But India, Poland, Pakistan and the Philippines which according to different rankings fare worse, and where human rights abuses occur, were invited, in part because they serve Washington’s geopolitical agenda.

History shows that Washington’s commitment to democracy goes only as far as its interests allow.

Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran prime minister in the 1950s, Salvaotre Allende the president of Chile in the 1970s, Lula de Silva, president of Brazil in the 2000s, Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, Viktor Yanukovych president of Ukraine, and Tayip Erdogan president of Turkey were all democratically elected – whether for the benefit or detriment of their people is an entirely separate question. But their election was insufficient for Washington to accept them as legitimate leaders, and the US took active measures to replace them with more US-friendly leaders. On the other hand, Washington had no problem engaging and even arming ruthless dictators when it suited its interests. It supported Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran; it cozied up to the House of Saud to ensure oil price stability; it supported, Anastasio Somoza (Nicaragua), Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines), Mobutu Sese Seko (Congo), Augusto Pinochet (Chile), Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (the former shah of Iran), Mohammed Zia ul-Haq (Pakistan), Syngman Rhee (South Korea) and Suharto (Indonesia) – just to prevent them from falling on the side of the Soviets.

Democracy, it seems, is the best form of government as long as it is governed by US-friendly regimes.

We are living in an era of great changes in the international system and many of our conventions, including the superiority of the democratic system, are being tested. The Greek philosopher Aristotle used the term telos as a way to inquire into the grand objective of everything in nature. The telos of a seed is to grow a tree. The telos of the state is first and foremost to defend its people from external enemies but also from each other, and to enable the conditions for a society to function, giving individuals not only the basic conditions to survive but also the opportunity to elevate themselves and fulfil their dreams.