Sunday, February 27, 2011

Indian Democrary: Egypt, and elections

The Hindu : News / National : “India can help build democracy in Arab world”

With so much media and personal attention going to North Africa of late I was delighted to find this piece suggesting that Indians might have something to offer to these emerging democracies.  Like the USA, India is a secular democracy with an even more diverse population: linguistically,  religiously, and more.  Unlike the USA, in India there are citizens who remember when India gained its independence from Britain, not much more than 60 years ago.  This is not to say, of course, that India is THE model of a modern democracy.  Again like the USA, India has difficulties with its democratic system of government.  Among them, according to some commentators, is a tendency to equate democracy with elections and to give all its attention to elections and none to governance.  (As the American news media focus our attention on who will run for president in two years, that sounds familiar.)

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