Democracy???

The next couple months of my life will be dedicated to the idea of Democracy, more specifically what role decomcracy promotion should play in foreign policy, if any? My thesis will be examining the current Fiji situation that has seen a military coup step in, as it purports to be eliminating corruption from the government in hopes of returning the country to democracy at a later date, while facing international pressure to return to a democracy. Basic ethical questions emerge, such as do the ends justify the means? Or are precedents of coups something that riddle a state, as could be argued in Fiji as they have had 4 in the past 20 years.

A couple of reservations I have headed into this study follow below.

• Is it the role of an outsider, paternal, government to push for democracy in another state?
• Is democracy the best form of government? Often overlooked when thinking about democracy is how much work must go into it for it to be functional. Its like any relationship, when a state decides to wed democracy it doesn't mean that wedding signals the beginning of a long loving relationship, but rather just the signalling of a commitment that will be tried and tested by the events of the future and even the events of the past.

General questions I have to answer.

• What role does democracy play in the securing of basic Human Rights?
• What role does democracy play for greater international security?

As an American I am biased that I do have some faith in Democracy, but as a skeptical American I recognize the shortcomings of our political process. The truth is when there is no clear right or wrong decisions, no matter how those decisions are made, democratically or by virtue of a single decision maker, those decisions are not necessarily correct. In fact much of what is popular is not correct, just look at patriarcy.

HOLLA