Democracy : an end or a tool?

Abstract

Democracy has become a keyword in contemporary socio-political jargon after September 11th 2001. The drama of the whole world is due to the lack of democracy and consequently the necessity of democratization of the non-democratic world, namely the Muslim World, since the authors of September 11th are Arab Muslims. However, democracy is a tool not an end. It is a means to implement something else, namely national objectives. Democracy as a concept may differ from a culture to another. In the West, it is a quantitative concept based on majority-minority criteria. It is based on the concept of the individual. Other cultures are more oriented towards groups. A multiparty system based on free election, one man one vote, is a formal concept. The multi-party system did not prevent corruption: undeclared funds for election campaigns. Political propaganda and the power of the mass media have a big impact on the vote. Democracy in the West did not prevent the rise of extreme right wing parties. The Islamic concept of democracy is a qualitative concept based on the right of every person to express himself freely. An Islamic political regime is not a theocracy. The real ruler is not the executive power but the legislative power. The objective of democracy is to implement the universal intentions of the law, based essentially on the public welfare.