As a result of the West's reluctance to support democracy

Tunisians welcome the forced suspension of the elected parliament

• Tunisia's revolution against Ben Ali sparked several revolutions in Arab countries.

  From the source

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American and Western support for pro-democracy movements around the world is just an assumption, given that freedom of choice, electoral and representative government, are what the people have always preferred.

But what would happen if this assumption was wrong?

What would happen if the majority believed that democracy would not be a successful system for managing their countries?

Testimonies in Tunisia, the last country facing a crisis over its governance, indicate that many citizens welcome the enforced suspension of the democratically elected parliament, which has failed to address the people's problems and was widely seen as serving only the wealthy.

It seems that Tunisian citizen Mohamed Ali, 33, from Ben Guerdane, is a supporter of the parliament's rejection. “I think what happened in Tunisia is a good thing," he said.

And I think it's what the people want.” According to what the British newspaper The Guardian reported last week, after the sudden step taken by Tunisian President Kais Saied, to control the authorities in this country and impose a state of emergency in the country.

But local and Western politicians considered Said's action a coup.

Ali had supported the 2010-2011 uprising to overthrow Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, which resulted in several revolutions against a number of Arab regimes, dubbed the Arab Spring.

After a decade of disappointments following this uprising, notes Stephen Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, opinions have changed.

"Many Tunisians seem to have a contradictory relationship with democracy," Cook wrote. "They want a more effective state that can provide them with work and social security, regardless of the shape of the political system."

uncomfortable thinking

This is very uncomfortable and unfashionable thinking for proponents of global democracy who cling to big ideas of peace, values, and fundamental rights.

However, the transition to democracy often falters in relation to several issues, such as economic hardship, inequality, lack of opportunities, poor education, and insecurity.

“We have made great progress in the field of freedom and politics despite all the crises,” Tunisian Professor Fadel Kaboub, an economist, told the New York Times.

But the economic model that leads to inequality and the debt crisis, in addition to the economic and social exclusion against which the population has rebelled, remains the same.

As is the case with the uprisings that failed in other Arab countries, the Tunisian uprising did not receive any support from Western countries, which were more focused on suppressing extremist movements than the aspirations of the Arab street.

Such familiar and cowardly behavior by Western governments gives democracy a bad name.

There are other proponents of democracy in many other countries of the world, but they have been repressed, which makes many wonder if the West does not fight for democracy, it is not worth suffering for.

wide message

It seems that the broad message that is spreading around the world is that if the people are fed, kept safe, housing and employment secured by dictatorial regimes, then these peoples are ready to forget the relative 'well-being' of Western democracy.

In other words, modern-day political liberalism, like anything else, has become a deal, no longer a universal principle theorized by the Enlightenment philosophers and the Founding Fathers, but a cliched bargain.

And for the American Republicans who suppressed and tampered with the vote, and who last week tried to cancel an investigation into the failed coup attempt of former President Donald Trump on the 6th of last January, democracy is fine as long as it delivers the “needed” results.

Looking at the example of the Republican Party in America, it is not surprising that the state of democracy around the world is getting worse and worse.

Britons are well aware that democracy often does not work smoothly even in their own home.

This dismal situation did not happen by chance or thanks to dictatorships, but because it is the product of public indifference and complicity, global inequality, and bad political practices everywhere.

And if US President Joe Biden is serious about supporting democracy in the world, the United States and the European Union should do more to convince Tunisians, and other peoples, that economic prosperity, security, and collective and individual democratic rights are not contradictory, but rather mutually reinforcing. These peoples can have both, And it's worth fighting for.

The transition to democracy often falters over several issues, such as economic hardship, inequality, lack of opportunities, poor education, and insecurity.

The broad message that is spreading all over the world is that if the people are fed, kept secure, housing and employment secured by dictatorial regimes, then these peoples are willing to forget the relative “well-being” of Western democracy.

Simon Tisdale, columnist for the Guardian.

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