The regime change we need.

• Author: Groo, Lawrence
• Position: Democratization

IT MAY be lonely at the top, but many presidents around the world wouldn't have it any other way. Western observers are accustomed to the autocratic tendencies of Arab strongmen and African dictators, but elsewhere a new breed of executive is emerging, sometimes combining bravado with popularity, in other cases professing democracy while seeking exemptions from it, and even pioneering a model of governance which defies Western hopes of smooth democratic transitions.

Over the last several years, the United States has increasingly focused on promoting democracy in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and elsewhere, helping to sponsor "revolutions" in Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan while pressuring Arab regimes across the board to conduct free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, and to accept the results. Yet the reality is that in many cases where peaceful regime change has been achieved--such as in several Eastern European countries--one set of self-serving leaders has been replaced with another. And where long-time incumbent executives have pledged to reform or stand aside, such as in various Middle Eastern countries, many have reversed course or further entrenched themselves in the trappings of power.

In Eastern Europe, Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko's reneging on his promise to transition the country toward a parliamentary, rather than presidential, system, and his maintenance of a powerful shadow cabinet, convinced many voters that the "Orange Revolution" of 2004 was more a staged handover than a resolute demonstration of people power. Furthermore, he failed to convince many mainstream citizens, particularly in the country's east, to support a permanent tilt towards Western institutions such as NATO. Not surprisingly, his party fared poorly in the March 2006 elections and was replaced by the Russian-backed party of Viktor Yanukovich. The lesson is that Western powers must be careful whom they back in so-called revolutions, for they risk giving a carte blanche to self-serving executives who are far from champions of democracy.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Georgia, site of another Western-endorsed regime change that took the form of the 2003 "Rose Revolution." Riding a wave of popularity after the ouster of Eduard Shevardnadze, young and Western-educated Mikhail Saakashvili has taken every opportunity to profess democracy in theory while often ignoring it in practice. Opposition newspapers, TV stations and NGOs have been intimidated and shut down, while, ironically, Western funding for such groups has dried up due to the presumed success of the Rose Revolution.

Under the pretext of Russian meddling in the disputed province of South Ossetia, as well as Moscow's cut-off of gas supplies, Saakashvili maintains a powerful secret police, used more for shaking clown his opponents than for internal security. While Saakashvili's administration has achieved some success in reforming antiquated business regulations, his appointment of loyal judges has undermined the judicial system's independence, and the constant musical chairs in the cabinet has made it difficult to know who is leading on important policy reform efforts at any given time.

Other transitioning countries in the region have also been bedeviled by lackluster or inconsistent democratic leadership, including Poland (the ruling Kaczynski brothers have not won many friends or admirers since assuming power), Slovakia (the current coalition government is comprised of authoritarian and racist political parties) and the Czech Republic (which hasn't even had a government since the June elections because of political squabbling). Only Romania (and Bulgaria on better days) appears to have a government that is both credible and steadfast in its commitment to push important reforms.

Whether in Ukraine, Georgia or elsewhere, heavy-handed or poorly managed executive governance inevitably means "democracy fatigue" sets in as a beleaguered population sees little improvement in its material welfare and political freedom. In this political environment it is not surprising that a growing number of executive leaders play nationalist...