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Democracy is about vision, possibility and evolution

6 March 2008

The Commonwealth Secretary-General has said that day-to-day governance which allows cultures and institutions to thrive, is the “guarantor of democracy”

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon has spoken about the vision, possibility and evolution of democracy at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government.

“Whatever route [a country] takes, it is only true to itself if it gives people a real say in how they are governed,” he said.

Mr McKinnon, who spoke at the American Ivy League University on 5 March 2008, looked back at how democracy has evolved from when Plato and Aristotle did not include women and slaves when they wrote of the rule of the ‘people’, to today’s newest democracies.

In examining democracy since its early roots, he highlighted “the growth of multiparty democracy in Africa” and “the collapse of the Soviet Union and of authoritarian regimes in Asia and Latin America” as democratic landmarks.

The Secretary-General then argued that “ticks in the boxes” next to words associated with a democratic culture - like parliament, elections and an independent judiciary - are not enough, because they mean little if they are “just the forms, and not the substance of democracy”.

“A deep democratic culture will mean much more – in societies that are properly inclusive of women, for instance, and which have a lively civil society and an independent and responsible media,” the Secretary-General said.

After examining the Commonwealth’s democratic principles, Mr McKinnon discussed “the Commonwealth practice of supporting democracy amongst its members [which] is in part punitive, but in essence, it’s positive.”

This practice of supporting democracy can be seen with the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, or CMAG. This Group, Mr McKinnon noted, was set up to monitor serious or persistent violations of values at the heart of the Commonwealth. It has the power to suspend or even expel member countries who flout the Commonwealth’s values.

Since it was set up in 1995 Fiji Islands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe have all been suspended, which excludes them from receiving any new Commonwealth technical assistance and also prevents government representatives from participating in intergovernmental Commonwealth meetings and events.

Even after democracy was returned to Sierra Leone following a newly elected government in 1998, the country asked to remain on CMAG’s agenda. Mr McKinnon pointed this out as “proof of the constructive power of the way the Commonwealth works”.

The Secretary-General concluded his speech saying that the “real stuff of democracy” is the unglamorous, yet vitally important ‘governance’ work. And it is this day-to-day governance which, he believes, is “the guarantor of democracy”.

Click here for the full text of this speech