This blog predicted a military takeover in Egypt in my post of June 27th and this has now come to pass. To the majority of Egyptians this is a cause for celebration, but to a sizable minority it is an attack upon democracy. The reality is very complicated not only in Egypt but everywhere and lies at the heart of a string of foreign policy mistakes made by the West since the cold war.
The first priority for a viable, stable, state is an effective government able to deliver services, establish a sound economy which guarantees employment as well as high quality education and health care and provides law and order to protects the rights and freedoms defined within its constitution of all its constituent religious, tribal and ethic groups as well as those of the majority. How such a government is established comes second.
Ideally it should be democratically elected, because this will allow openness and individual freedom of expression. If this is not possible it will be some form of dictatorship or monarchy founded on brute force or hereditary tradition. Some of these are better than others, but all restrict individual freedoms, have a list of political crimes and have conformity as a condition of general freedoms actually allowed. It is not surprising democracy is seen as the better model, but for it to work certain conditions have to apply.
The first of these is that there must be permanent institutions of sound governance organised to operate under democratic supervision. The second is that there must be disciplined political parties able to find consensus enough to form majority coalitions to carry out a programme for government; alternatively there is the American model of two parties which are each coalitions within themselves. Third, there must be an electoral organisation which is free from bribery and intimidation which delivers a result which will be accepted even by those who voted for an alternative. Finally, above all, democracy requires two behavioural fundamentals.
Those who gain a mandate to govern have to accept they have a responsibility to govern in the whole national interest and not a licence to do as they please for the benefit of one class or section only; the population at large must willing to do the bidding of those in power whose policies they voted against.
You will now understand why Egypt’s first attempt at democracy has failed. You may also speculate how many other governments in the world could survive twenty million signatures asking them to go, an imploding economy, mass unemployment and millions of protesters occupying the streets 24/7. Fewer than you think.