Democracy On the March

InstantReplay supports Swazi democrats' call for a general strike on January 25th to protest corruption by the royal family. The seeds of democracy sown long ago by democratic revolutions in Europe and recently by the revolution of democratic inclusion in South Africa are blooming in Swaziland.

I'm currently reading Margaret MacMillan's "Peacemakers" (a revisionist history of the 1919 peace conference), in which she puzzles over the meaning of Wilson's principle of self-determination, complaining that it is unclear how large or small a unit must be to have the right of self-determination. This is the classic error of the post-modern liberal, seeing political rights as collective, not individual. While I'm no expert on Wilson, I think his priorities and actions are much better explained by seeing that the focus was on democracy, not national aspirations. Wilson would not have supported separatist groups like the Tamil Tigers - who have been in the news as relief workers recently - but would support the Swazi democrats. A new state is not self-determined if it is run by an autocrat; likewise a nation can be part of a multinational state, but participate democratically in determining its own destiny.

For reasons to smile, read Arthur Chrenkoff’s semimonthly roundup of good news from Iraq.