When democracy gets messy: the U.S. is finding out that in promoting democracy abroad, when you 'let the genie out of the bottle,' the results are not always predictable ...

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

After a radical Islamic group swept the Palestinian elections in January, the overwhelming sense among politicians and intellectuals throughout the East was that America's little chemistry experiment had blown up in its face.

For several years, President Bush has promoted democracy as a key part of the solution to the region's problems. But when Hamas, a group dedicated to Israel's destruction and responsible for scores of deadly suicide bombings, won an unexpected victory in the Palestinian legislative elections, the outcome could not have been more contrary to American interests.

"You might remember the saying, 'Beware of what you wish--you might get what you want,'" says Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "It's very much applicable."

Across the Middle East, elections generally considered free have recently unleashed a variety of unfriendly political forces. In Egypt, the radical Muslim Brotherhood made gains in freer-than-usual parliamentary elections in December. In Iraq, Islamic candidates allied with Iran won a plurality in the January parliamentary elections. And in Lebanon, Hezbollah--like Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the West--surged in last year's legislative elections.

RISKS VS. BENEFITS

Governments unfriendly or even hostile to the interests of the U.S. and its allies have also scored victories in Latin America in recent years: Venezuelans elected Hugo Chavez, a leftist with an anti-American agenda, as president in 1998. And in December, socialist Evo Morales, who has said he will legalize the cultivation of coca (from which cocaine is made) won the Bolivian presidency.

The big question, then, is whether the long-term benefits of democracy are worth the short-term risks. Can a shot of democracy, however jolting at first, be trusted in the end to seduce and tame any dangerous forces it has set loose?

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, highlighted the dangers of failed, undemocratic countries like Afghanistan, which harbored Al Qaeda, and renewed U.S. interest in promoting democracy as a counterforce.

The U.S. encouraging democracy abroad is nothing new. In 1917, during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson made it the centerpiece of his foreign policy. And after World War II, in what became known as the Truman Doctrine (for President Harry Truman), the U.S. promoted democracy and economic development as a way to prevent the spread of communism, especially in war-ravaged Europe.

No matter how unsavory the U.S. finds some election results, says Robert Pastor of...