Africans, the World and Democracy

In another of those little coincidences, the BBC also ran a story on whether Africans and Democracy could ever work ..... now for personal reasons, I pay some interest in African politics (especially South Africa), so I have discussed whether democracy can ever work in Africa. This debate made me think about non African black states, and whether 'democracy' had ever taken anywhere where black peoples were the majority:

• Haiti, the first black independent nation in the Caribbean, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion. It has never managed to install a democratic government since 1804, and is almost a template for 'black independence', followed by complete social collapse.
• Ethiopia, is one of the worlds oldest nations, and has largely remained independent of European or Arab rule. It was ruled by an Emperor until recently, and has had a succession of dictatorships since. It is currently nominally a democratic state, which has been described as a "Hybrid", situated somewhere between a "flawed democracy" and an "authoritarian regime".

Its position at number 106, out of 167 in league table of democratic states, suggests that there are at least 105 more democratic states. In fact, a look at this "Democratic Index" suggests that ....

World Democracy Index Map

 ...... most of the world has problem getting democracy to stick ... In this illustration the states marked in black the least, and those in light colours the most democratic. So the states to aspire to are Canada, Scandinavia and the Antipodeans .... the rest of us fail to reach the full standards of democracy to one degree or another. 

So whilst its true to say that Black states and democracy are not successful, neither are many other races.

• South Americans have a mixed and patchy record of democracy.
• Only Japan and South Korea have managed to install democracy in the Asian area.
• The Arabs have failed to install any form of democracy (in fact that's true of virtually all Muslim states).
• Only India has installed democracy in the subcontinent.

Three quarters of the world has never really taken democracy to its soul, and it makes you wonder if its a peculiarly 'White European' construct that can only be maintained in states based upon white majority populations, or in those post colonial constructs such as India, where its the only practicable way of ruling what was formerly several dozen states. In Japan and South Korea it was imposed and maintained by US military might following occupation.

Even Russia has not been able to establish democracy, despite its European roots.  Its current 'czar', is prime minister Putin, who took the presidential powers with him while he serves a term as prime minister, before resuming as president (with full powers) again ..... its likely that he will then amend the constitution to retain his roll as president.