23633: (reply) Brown: Re: 23627 (discuss) Anonymous: Haiti tomorrow (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haines Brown <brownh@hartford-hwp.com>

I found worthwhile the effort of "anonymous" to offer a more balanced
assessment of Aristide and the current occupation regime. I won't
assess the exent to which he succeeded because that has been debated
ad nauseum on this list.

However, the second half of his contribution offered a very dismal
assessment that ended being an apologia for one side of the question:

> Let us face it. Democracy is a very difficult exercise which, at
> best, works moderately well in highly disciplined and structured
> societies. It is out of the question for present day Haiti.
...
> No home grown government can hope to change the current mindsets of
> either the haves or the have-nots.
...
> The only hope that I can see would be in a UN government (an
> improved Kosovo style) with heavy US and EEC backing ruling for a
> generation...

I'm troubled by the suggestion that democracy is necessarily an effect
of some outside (and therefore alien) order imposed from the
top. Arguably, of greater value than an order that by its nature
cannot really satisfy Haitian aspirations, is democracy, however rough
and tumble, at the popular level.

Are alternatives possible? Of course. For example, a fascinating book
is Ralph Hinton's Fanshen: it is possbile to establish democracy at
the grass roots in the midst of the greatest political disorder at the
top. Granted, that democracy described in excruciating detail by
Hinton was cruel in operation, and Hinton does not hide that fact, but
it did unquestionably work to establish social equality and political
participation.

Another example, closer to home, might be neighborhood governance in
Cuba. There's no need to ignore any shortcomings of the national
government to appreciate the very real degree of democracy at the
neighborbood level. It is only such real democracy at the base of
society that can build the kind of citizenry who are capable of
supporting an ordered and democratic governance at the top. Such an
outcome is not inevitable, but it seems impossible without having
first met the preconditions at the bottom.

Haines Brown