Democracies in need

There was at least one report issued this month that contained some good news. Freedom House, a New York-based organization that releases an annual study of how democracy and basic liberties are faring around the world, found that 114 countries -- the largest number in history -- were democracies, defined as places having "elected governments with a framework of basic representative institutions". Of these 114, all but 37 were not only democratic in structure but also guaranteed the essential human and political rights that make a country genuinely free.

But there was also bad news: The 37 democracies that the group rated only "partly free" included countries beset with "interethnic and intersectarian strife" and with widespread corruption, or lacking in effective civic institutions, including "a truly free press and independent judiciary".

Many of the nations striving hard to build democracy find themselves not only strapped for cash but also lacking in some of the basic institutions of civil society that need to be strong if democracy is to remain strong. The report suggests that the foreign aid debate ought to take into account the need "to strengthen and solidify fragile democratic institutions by rigorously redirecting economic assistance to countries that are playing by the democratic rules of the game".

-- The Washington Post