Travelling in Europe always reminds me how fortunate New Zealand was to have been settled by the British who came from a democracy and established another in their colony.
Europe is far older than us but many countries here are much newer to democracy than we are.
It’s only 34 years since Franco died and it was a couple of years later that democracy was established in Spain under a constitutional monarchy.
Further east democracies are much younger and some countries have yet to attain it.
Former British ambassador to Moscow, Tony Brenton, sees a role for established democracies in fostering democracy in countries where it is incipient or endangered. He also sees a role for a Democratic Club and comes up with a simple requirement for membership:
A country must be willing to allow independent international observers to attend and report on its elections.
. . . Even countries with such impeccable democratic qualifications as the UK might have to modify electoral law to allow observers full access to the balloting process. And the sourcing of observers would itself have to be watched. There are tainted sources, but also excellent ones such as the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe). The core concept, however, could not be starker. If you hold an election judged by international experts to be free and fair, you are a democracy. And if not, not.
It would have been interesting to see if a country with impeccable democratic qualifications such as New Zealand would have passed this test with last year’s election under the Electoral Finance Act.
We can be thankful it has gone but it would be a good guide to keep in mind this criteria when designing the legislation which will replace it.
Imagine the shame if we didn’t qualify! That and the desire to be part of an exclusive, albeit essentially toothless, club is one of the things which Brenton thinks might help foster democracy.
That is a worthy aim. The international community has a real interest in the spread of democracy to those places yet to gain it because ii is not only better for the people in the individual countries, it helps make the world a more stable place.
If a Democratic Club helps encourage democracy then it’s definitely worth promoting.
