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...boards.
Algerians ballots in presidential election. Citizens of Qatar approved their first-ever constitution in a national referendum. Even Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, is considering the possibility of letting its male citizens elect regional councils.
President Bush says Islamic countries--particularly in the Middle East--are ripe for the spread of democracy. Part of his stated rationale for invading Afghanistan and Iraq was to topple authoritarian regimes in both countries and plant the seeds of democracy. "A free Iraq rising in the heart of the Middle East will show the people of that region a clear alternative to the bitterness that feeds terror," Bush said in June.
WHAT MAKES A DEMOCRACY?
But true democracies, at least as Americans conceive of them, have other hallmarks, in addition to regular elections: peaceful transfers of power, freedom of speech and religion, protection of the rights of women and minorities.
Afghanistan held what most observers said was a relatively smooth national election in October, choosing Hamid Karzai as the nation's first popularly elected President. In Iraq, the U.S. military is trying to bolster the unstable security situation so the country can hold its first democratic elections in January to choose a parliament, which will then draft a constitution. And Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are planning January elections for a successor to President Yasir Ararat, who died in November.
The world is watching these experiments with democracy...
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