Measuring Democracy

The Ivory Coast has yet to fully realize democracy, and in the past few days people have resorted to violence to settle an ongoing dispute between two presidential candidates who claimed victory in a country wide election held of November 28.

Apparently both Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara think they have the right to the presidency based on the elections late last year. It’s difficult to determine who really won, but the United Nations is backing Ouattara, as they believe he was the sole victor.

Gbagbo refuses to give up the presidency, and as of yesterday, Ouattara backed troops have been the attacking the presidential compound in an effort to oust the man and his followers. Interestingly enough, this BBC article says he might not even be in there, and that no one has actually seen him for weeks.

I think this is a good example of the idea in democratic theory that democracy has to be recognized and accepted by the people in order to be fully realized. Clearly the people of Ivory Coast are still skeptical of their democratic institutions. As a result of this insecurity, there have been citizens dying at the hands of guns and mortar blasts.

A piece on the Huffington Post does a great job of outlining the problem: it also shows the uselessness of the UN in these types of situations. The author actually calls for a US led front against Gbagbo, likening the situation there to the conflict in Libya.

I find it hard to believe that the US would intervene in such an instance, as there are few ties between the Ivory Coast and the Americans. It does sounds like more can be done from the side of the UN in limiting civilian fatalities, though.