Practicing Democracy

It’s interesting to watch democracy in action in other countries.  In Russia, the elections seemed almost as controlled as in Communist days, consolidating more power for a man nearing the end of his constitutionally mandated limit but showing no signs of departing.  The charasmatic and infuriating leader of Venezuela tried a power grab and his referendum appears to have been defeated. Last year, Hamas swept to power among Palestinians, the year before, Hezbollah won a decisive victory.

Here in this country, we have hanging chads and faulty voting machines but in general democracy works well.  Free elections are accompanied by freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and the freedom to nominate the same kinds of candidates year after year. Democracy works differently in other places, subject to culture, history, religion and the strength or influence of a particular leader or group. It’s tempting to interfere but often more instructive simply to watch and wait and see how it all unfolds.