A CENTRAL component of American foreign policy since the First World War is now under attack. In popular American perception, democracy promotion has become linked to the aggressive foreign policy of the Bush Administration, most notably the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars are now frequently cited to caricature all democracy assistance as "bombs and ballots" initiatives that depend excessively on military action and elections.
Critics of democracy promotion have emerged primarily from the left wing of the Democratic Party and the centrist or realist wing of the Republican Party. Even some neoconservatives and moderate Democrats have joined the chorus, calling for a reduced emphasis on democracy promotion and a return to a more realist, if not isolationist, foreign policy.
Critics seizing on the "ballots" half of the argument highlight the inadequacies of elections in ensuring democracy and their propensity to cause explosive consequences if elections are introduced at the wrong place or time-arguments offered in various ways by Ian Bremmer in "In the Right Direction", from the January/February 2007 issue, and Jack Snyder and Edward D. Mansfied in "Prone to Violence", from the Winter 2005/06 issue. Many critics point particularly to the possible perils of conducting early elections in countries that are ethnically divided or emerging from conflict.
Fair enough-but democracy assistance entails more than just elections. Scholars and practitioners have long been aware of the dangers of relying too heavily on elections as the midwives of peaceful democratization. What's more, academic debates over the ideal sequencing of institution-building and elections are of little value to practitioners and activists within democratizing countries, who understand that strengthening institutions, supporting civil society and conducting elections generally have to be done at the same time.
