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| In Elections Across the World, Democracy Is a Matter of Definition | In Elections Across the World, Democracy Is a Matter of Definition |
| (about 21 hours later) | |
| LONDON — These have been heady days for those who like to ponder whether there is such a thing as a one-size-fits-all election, whether democracy, in other words, is indivisible. | LONDON — These have been heady days for those who like to ponder whether there is such a thing as a one-size-fits-all election, whether democracy, in other words, is indivisible. |
| There was, first off, the presidential vote in Egypt, a ballot built on the premise that the outcome — the election of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi — was a foregone conclusion. That came just after the election in Ukraine tested the notion that suffrage need not be completely universal if part of the populace is locked in an insurgency. | There was, first off, the presidential vote in Egypt, a ballot built on the premise that the outcome — the election of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi — was a foregone conclusion. That came just after the election in Ukraine tested the notion that suffrage need not be completely universal if part of the populace is locked in an insurgency. |
| Combining the two — a foregone conclusion in the teeth of a full-blown civil war — Syrians voted this week in an election intended to give President Bashar al-Assad a third seven-year term and, in the eyes of his supporters, legitimacy to dictate the country’s future. | Combining the two — a foregone conclusion in the teeth of a full-blown civil war — Syrians voted this week in an election intended to give President Bashar al-Assad a third seven-year term and, in the eyes of his supporters, legitimacy to dictate the country’s future. |
| Then there was Europe. Voters in the 28 member states of the European Union cast ballots last month for the European Parliament, and handed a huge boost to rebellious populists clamoring for change. Within days, though, the bloc’s leaders seemed to have reverted to a more familiar style, their energies focused on whether a former prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, should become the new head of the European Commission, the union’s all-powerful central executive. | Then there was Europe. Voters in the 28 member states of the European Union cast ballots last month for the European Parliament, and handed a huge boost to rebellious populists clamoring for change. Within days, though, the bloc’s leaders seemed to have reverted to a more familiar style, their energies focused on whether a former prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, should become the new head of the European Commission, the union’s all-powerful central executive. |
| The public will not be asked to make that choice; it is likely to come down to back-room horse-trading among figures like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany (pro-Juncker) and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain (anti-Juncker). | The public will not be asked to make that choice; it is likely to come down to back-room horse-trading among figures like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany (pro-Juncker) and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain (anti-Juncker). |
| In these examples, taken together, the question that intrudes is whether, with different shadings, elections are not so much totems of democracy as its Achilles’ heel. | In these examples, taken together, the question that intrudes is whether, with different shadings, elections are not so much totems of democracy as its Achilles’ heel. |
| Anyone, it seems, can hold an election, and the list of the countries that have girds the globe, from Zimbabwe to Kazakhstan. But in dictatorships, elections are not so much the fruit of democracy as the emblem of its perversion; the act of voting is intended only to create a chimera of legitimacy, not what Abraham Lincoln called “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” | Anyone, it seems, can hold an election, and the list of the countries that have girds the globe, from Zimbabwe to Kazakhstan. But in dictatorships, elections are not so much the fruit of democracy as the emblem of its perversion; the act of voting is intended only to create a chimera of legitimacy, not what Abraham Lincoln called “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” |
| “Elections are a necessary component, but not a sufficient condition, for democracy — or more specifically, a liberal democracy,” said Hisham Melhem, a senior journalist with the Arabic news channel Al Arabiya. “A modern democracy cannot exist without free, fair and transparent elections, but elections alone do not a democracy make.” | “Elections are a necessary component, but not a sufficient condition, for democracy — or more specifically, a liberal democracy,” said Hisham Melhem, a senior journalist with the Arabic news channel Al Arabiya. “A modern democracy cannot exist without free, fair and transparent elections, but elections alone do not a democracy make.” |
| Perhaps the single most telling image from Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Tuesday was a television sequence showing Mr. Assad and his wife, Asma, posing for the cameras at a polling place. Moments like that are part of the ritual of elections everywhere — leader pauses and smiles, ballot paper hovering over the narrow portal of democracy, spouse waiting nearby. | |
| But in Mr. Assad’s case, the unseen backdrop to the polling place was a canvas of ruined cities, refugees and insurgency, daubed across the nation by three years of civil war. | But in Mr. Assad’s case, the unseen backdrop to the polling place was a canvas of ruined cities, refugees and insurgency, daubed across the nation by three years of civil war. |
| The elections in Egypt and Syria represented a triumph of process and imagery over democracy’s supposed essence. And, perhaps, there is a cruel twist there for those in the United States and elsewhere in the West who have laid such stress on the mechanics of the ballot box. | The elections in Egypt and Syria represented a triumph of process and imagery over democracy’s supposed essence. And, perhaps, there is a cruel twist there for those in the United States and elsewhere in the West who have laid such stress on the mechanics of the ballot box. |
| As the Arab Spring took root in 2011, American and European democracy advocates became its greatest cheerleaders; they did the same in February for the effort to topple the Russian-backed president of Ukraine, Viktor F. Yanukovych. | As the Arab Spring took root in 2011, American and European democracy advocates became its greatest cheerleaders; they did the same in February for the effort to topple the Russian-backed president of Ukraine, Viktor F. Yanukovych. |
| But since then, Russia has annexed Crimea, and insurgencies have spread across eastern Ukraine. In the Middle East, the removal of entrenched elites and the enthusiasm of protesters on the street have not proved synonymous with the implantation of imported notions of democracy. | But since then, Russia has annexed Crimea, and insurgencies have spread across eastern Ukraine. In the Middle East, the removal of entrenched elites and the enthusiasm of protesters on the street have not proved synonymous with the implantation of imported notions of democracy. |
| “The democratic aspirations of the protesters who filled streets and public squares across Syria in early 2011 were among the conflict’s first casualties,” Steven Heydemann, of the Center for Applied Research on Conflict at the United States Institute of Peace, wrote in an article last year. “If democracy as an outcome of the uprising was always uncertain, democratic prospects have been severely crippled by the devastation of civil war and the deepening fragmentation of Syrian society.” | “The democratic aspirations of the protesters who filled streets and public squares across Syria in early 2011 were among the conflict’s first casualties,” Steven Heydemann, of the Center for Applied Research on Conflict at the United States Institute of Peace, wrote in an article last year. “If democracy as an outcome of the uprising was always uncertain, democratic prospects have been severely crippled by the devastation of civil war and the deepening fragmentation of Syrian society.” |
| Three years after the Arab Spring began, the wheel in Egypt seems to have come full circle: Official results in Cairo gave Mr. Sisi, the former army field marshal, almost 97 percent of the vote, just the sort of landslide that used to be announced every few years for Hosni Mubarak, the former general who ran the country for three decades before 2011. | |
| Still, the validity of elections is not judged solely on the sentiments of those who vote. | Still, the validity of elections is not judged solely on the sentiments of those who vote. |
| In South Africa last month, one opposition group counseled its followers to spoil their ballots to show their displeasure, if they could not find an alternative to President Jacob G. Zuma — strange advice in a land that spent decades fighting an apartheid regime for the right to cast those very ballots. (Not many voters heeded the group’s call.) | In South Africa last month, one opposition group counseled its followers to spoil their ballots to show their displeasure, if they could not find an alternative to President Jacob G. Zuma — strange advice in a land that spent decades fighting an apartheid regime for the right to cast those very ballots. (Not many voters heeded the group’s call.) |
| In Egypt, the reported turnout was about 47 percent of eligible voters, far short of the level Mr. Sisi sought in his quest for a convincing mandate. Followers of Mohamed Morsi, the freely elected Islamist president whom Mr. Sisi overthrew last year, boycotted the election this time. In the 2012 elections that brought Mr. Morsi to power, the turnout was 52 percent. | In Egypt, the reported turnout was about 47 percent of eligible voters, far short of the level Mr. Sisi sought in his quest for a convincing mandate. Followers of Mohamed Morsi, the freely elected Islamist president whom Mr. Sisi overthrew last year, boycotted the election this time. In the 2012 elections that brought Mr. Morsi to power, the turnout was 52 percent. |
| Participation was low in the European Parliament voting as well — 43 percent on average, and much lower in some countries, like Slovakia, where turnout was only 13 percent. | Participation was low in the European Parliament voting as well — 43 percent on average, and much lower in some countries, like Slovakia, where turnout was only 13 percent. |
| On Wednesday, it was clear that with millions of Syrians living as refugees and many more living behind the swirling lines of the insurgency in areas outside government control, where no attempt was made to organize balloting, the participation rate would be a matter of definition. | |
| The official results gave Mr. Assad victory with 88.7 percent of the votes and a turnout of 73.47 percent. More than 10 million people, the Syrian authorities said, had voted for him. | The official results gave Mr. Assad victory with 88.7 percent of the votes and a turnout of 73.47 percent. More than 10 million people, the Syrian authorities said, had voted for him. |
| Mr. Assad’s opponents posted a mocking counterpoint online: a video, shot in a run-down and battered rebel-held area, that shows a man depositing a bag of garbage in a trash bin painted white to resemble a ballot box. | Mr. Assad’s opponents posted a mocking counterpoint online: a video, shot in a run-down and battered rebel-held area, that shows a man depositing a bag of garbage in a trash bin painted white to resemble a ballot box. |