Democracy building is the process of building and strengthening democracy.  Voter turnout in established democracies is 73%, compared to 58% in non-democractic countries.

Situation: Many countries today are ruled by governments that do not protect the rights of citizens but infringe on them.  Such countries harm the welfare of their citizens.  In a representative democracy such as the USA, citzens are guaranteed the protection of liberties such as the right to free assembly, free speech, free religion and equality before the law. Though it has spread across globe over the course of history, democracy evades many people today.  Countries like China, Saudia Arabia, Cuba, and Iran rule with an iron fist over their people, though some pretense of democracy may be made on some matters. In such countries, citizens are subject to much control and surveillance by the government and are not allowed to be truly free citizens.

Statistics: Where democracy exists, good things happen.  Democratic states are far from perfect and suffer from considerable problems, but they nonetheless bring much health and goodness to their citizens. For example, in Afghanistan, the situation has changed considerably since the fall of the Taliban, a non-democratic regime. One mark of the Taliban was their refusal to allow girls to go to school. Recently, the Afghan Ministry of Education estimated that over 5 million children are in school and 42 percent of these students are girls. This means over 2 million schoolgirls--compared to the previous, pre-Taliban all-time Afghan record of just 350,000.

YOU SHOULD CARE because citizens just like you are suffering all over the world under totalitarian regimes replete with heavy-fisted police squads and rights-denying officials. You need not be liberal or conservative to support the cause--indeed, you're actually supporting the wordlwide existence of both groups by supporting democracy.  Join the cause, and work for the freedom of all citizens to elect their government, enjoy their lives, and cherish their freedoms, just like you do.

• 03/28/2007 11:32
  • 03/28/2007 11:18
  • 03/28/2007 10:55