Exporting Democracy

Exporting Democracy Democracy is a system of government based on the idea that citizens should play an influential role in the actions and decisions it makes for its people. This is usually done through elections to assign public officials who represent their views on political issues. These ideas and values of democracy have proved to be an extremely important aspect of American life. While the United States had found it successful to operate its government based on these rules and ideas, other countries have grown and developed their government in many different ways including autocracy governments, in which a single king, queen or dictator is in power, oligarchy governments, in which a small group of people controls the decision making and even constitutional governments, in which limits are placed on the government’s powers. Because the United States is a powerful country, they may feel obligated to spread their successful ways to other countries in order to assist them. However, many countries are run based on different religions, monetary systems and opinions about their people making it clear that these countries should not be ran by the same type of government as other countries who oppose these lifestyles. A clear and prevalent example of a failed attempt in spreading democracy to other nations can be seen in Iraq and the Middle East. The Middle East operates their government based on a different religion and a different way of society in which females are not given any rights or opportunities as compared to men, while the United States provides all of its citizens, male or female, with the equal rights and opportunities. In the Middle East, women are given no say in the decisions of government or decisions in many other aspects of their lives such as what they wear or who they marry. With these different rules and societal structures, it is clearly inappropriate to be ran by the same type of government as a country where women are provided the opportunity to have a voice in society. This can be seen in the previous years that the United States has attempted to expand democracy to the Middle East. These efforts have only resulted in a severe war which has caused us to lose not only billions of dollars but billions of lives in both the Middle East and the United States. When the Iraqi government does not believe in equal rights for all, proven by women’s lack of say in society, how can they be governed by a type of government in which a citizen’s voice is essential? In some countries, a democracy may be as successful as it is today in the United States. In fact, having a democracy might improve the lives of other people who live by different rules and restrictions placed on them by their own government. However, that does not give the superpower country a justified reason to enforce their lifestyle upon another nation who may not want to lead their country in the same way. Based on previous examples of exporting democracy to other nations, it is clear that the United States should refrain from attempting to spread democracy to other nations and focus on issues going on internally.