Like iron filaments passing through a magnetic field, nation-by-nation the world is being realigned. The present, more than any time past, stands out in history as the heyday of democracy.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the proliferation of democracy has been unchecked. Between 1950 and 2000 the number of democratic nations rose from 22 to 120 -- from 28 percent to 63 percent of the world. Now, 90 years after Woodrow Wilson urged the United States to make the world "safe for democracy," we can state with conviction that the foundations of the international community have been successfully carved out of the hard rock of democracy. But in an era characterized by a global validation of democracy and a rejection of its alternatives, we have to be careful not to poison ourselves with its success and lose sight of its potential pitfalls.
Today, the non-democratic nations of the world are slowly being forced to ascribe to political norms established by the majority bloc of democratic nations. In 2003 the United States overthrew Saddam Hussein and implemented a precursory democracy in Iraq; in the last decade sanctions have been maintained and placed upon a slew of non-democratic states including Cuba, Iran, Burma and North Korea; and, at present, the European Union refuses to integrate new states economically until they qualify as functioning democracies.
The benefits of democracy's globalization are manifold. Besides the increase in rights and representation of individuals in democratic nations, the democratic peace theory predicts the potential advent of total peace in a homogenously democratic world. But, like every other political system, democracy is wrapped tightly around a core of corruptible ideals, and if we grow complacent with its administration it will degenerate and decay.
In 1835, Alexis Tocqueville published his definitive work, "Democracy in America." In it he claimed that the greatest threat to American democracy would come from the "tyranny of the masses": "If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority, which may at some future time urge the minorities to desperation and oblige them to have recourse to physical force."
But democracy in America has stood the test of time. For centuries it has been tinkered and toyed with, slowly evolving with society to strike a careful balance between meeting the needs of the people and retaining the ability to govern them effectively. As part of this evolution, checks and balances have been developed to mediate between minority groups and the masses. Most importantly, however, this process of evolution has been inexorably linked to the education of the public. For example, laws that extended suffrage to a greater percentage of the population were passed during periods of rapid development in the American education system. And with the development of checks and balances and high levels of education, a large middle class emerged in the United States -- a phenomenon that helped to alleviate tension between the masses and minorities by moving popular opinion closer to the center of society's spectrum of perspectives.
But inasmuch as this gradual transformation has produced a form of democracy that is fine-tuned to American society today, it is highly unlikely that this resulting form of democracy can be grafted unerringly onto other countries with different cultures and societies.
Ultimately, what Tocqueville predicted to be America's greatest obstacle in 1835 may have been deftly avoided by the United States. But it might still be passed on as a more legitimate threat to other nations in the future. And while the international spread of democracy has proven to be beneficial up till now, we should by no means grow complacent with its implementation and uncritical of its ability to be effective everywhere.
