Why American 'Democracy Promotion' Rings Hollow in the
organisations is hardly surprising: they're
widely seen as stooges of
By Mark Weisbrot
The Guardian (
January 31, 2012
I have to laugh when I see the International Republican
Institute (IRI) described by the international media as
an "organization that promotes democracy" (in this
case, on NPR). The IRI is in the news lately because
on a "no-fly" list and thereby trapped them in the
country, facing investigation and possible trial. I am
wondering just how credulous these journalists and
editors are: if I were to describe the Center for
Economic and Policy Research as "a magical organization
that transforms scrap metal into gold", would that
become CEPR's standard description in the news?
The IRI is an international arm of the
party, so anyone with the stomach to watch the
Republican presidential debates might doubt whether
this would be a "democracy-promotion" organization. But
a look at some of their recent adventures is enough to
set the record straight: in 2004, the IRI played a
major role in overthrowing the democratically elected
government of
publicly celebrated the short-lived military coup that
overthrew the democratically elected government of
and individuals that were involved in the coup. In
2005, the IRI was involved in an effort to promote
changes in
the governing Workers party of then President Lula da Silva.
Most recently, in 2009, there was a military coup
against the democratically elected government of
could to help the coup succeed, and supported
"elections" in November of 2009 to legitimize the coup
government. The rest of the world - including even the
Organization of American States (OAS), under pressure
from South American democracies - refused to send
observers. This was because of the political repression
during the campaign period: police violence, raiding of
independent media, and the forced exile of political
opponents - including the country's democratically
elected president.
But the IRI and the National Democratic Institute (NDI)
- its Democratic party-linked counterpart - went there
to legitimate the "election". But don't take my word
for why they chose to participate. Here is what the
USAID, part of the
funder of IRI and NDI activities, had to say about
their role (pdf) in
"The absence of the OAS and other recognized
international observation groups made NDI and IRI's
assessment/observation processes more meaningful in
the eyes of the international community. The
recognition of a free, fair and transparent
electoral process provided a strong argument to
support the new government. [.] The international
"assessment" conducted by NDI and the "observation"
conducted by IRI, even if they did not fulfill
accepted standards, partially achieved the sought-
after impact."
Who knows what the IRI is doing in
what the
brutal dictatorship for decades right up to the point
where mass protests made it clear that
not stop Mubarak's ouster by a real, popular,
democratic movement last year.
The IRI and NDI are core grantees of the National
Endowment for Democracy, an organization that conducts
activities "much of [which]" the "CIA used to fund
covertly", as the
Endowment was being created in the early 1980s. These
organizations will sometimes support democracy, but
often do not, or are even against it. This is not
because they are inherently evil, but because of the
position of the
States government, more than any other in the world, is
running an empire. By their nature, empires are about
power and control over other people in distant lands.
These goals will generally conflict with many people's
aspirations for democracy and national self-determination.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the
where the
it at odds with populations throughout the region. As a
result,
because it will inevitably lead to more governments
taking the side of the Palestinians, and opposing other
US ambitions in the region, such as its desire for
military bases and alliances. Even in
Washington brags about having toppled a dictatorship,
the people had to fight the occupying authorities for
the right to hold national elections, and then to kick
US troops out of the country.
This creates a vicious cycle in which hated and often
repressive governments are supportive of US foreign
policy, and these governments receive
increasing regional animosity toward the
In some cases, it also leads to terrorist attacks
against US institutions or citizens, which is then used
by our leaders to justify long or endless wars (for
example,
opinion (pdf) by the
International, which included Egypt, asked respondents
to "name two countries that are the biggest threat to
you": 88% named the
Another ugly side-effect of US government-sponsored
"democracy-promotion" is that it helps governments that
want to repress authentic, national, pro-democracy
movements. Most of the repressive governments in the
Middle East and
their opponents with the taint of association with
raids on foreign organizations, the government arrested
youth activists associated with the April 6th movement,
and other activists.
Here in
that "pro-democracy" groups funded by the
might have a credibility problem in most of the world.
But this is true - even when these groups aren't
actively opposing democracy. Their funding would be a
good target for budget cuts.
c 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its
affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
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