中文
By Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira
After the end of the Cold War, the United States became the only superpower in the world. Along with the dramatic changes in the world political landscape, American democracy has been promoted by some as the "universal model of human democracy" and packaged as the "miracle cure" for all diseases and the "standard and destination" for democratic political construction in the majority of developing countries.
Supported by the powerful U.S. cultural communication machine and international discourse power, the export of democracy plays the role of an accomplice in the construction and maintenance of U.S. hegemony in the post-Cold War world.
As a form of domination, classical democracy shone in the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. With the birth of the modern world and the emergence of the bourgeoisie and the nation-state, democratic politics began to take on a wholly new political dominant force and communal platform, leading the world to make leaps and bounds of progress.
But today, American-style Western democracy and human rights are struggling, and the problem is that these are built on capital and pressure from sectorial groups. Capital's greedy, predatory, and profit-oriented attributes have catalyzed its change.
For America, a developed capitalist country, capital is the bloodline of its entire social order, and money, as the most intuitive expression of capital, constitutes the basic driving mechanism for the operation of the entire American society, and the same is true in the political sphere. It can be said that without money, American-style democracy is neither operational in practice nor conceptually comprehensible.
If there is anything that stands out about American-style democracy over the politics of other capitalist countries, it is that it demonstrates in a more direct, blatant, and thorough form than other countries to be in the dominant position and a dominant role of money in the construction and operation of the bourgeois political order.
At the international level, the United States has been criticized by the international community for politicizing and weaponizing "democracy" and interfering in the affairs of other countries in the name of "upholding democracy" and "fighting the evil." Under the guise of "supporting democracy," the United States has promoted the "New Monroe Doctrine" in Latin America, instigated "color revolutions" in Eurasia, stirred up the "Arab Spring" in the Middle East.
"It has incited divisive confrontations in many parts of the world, dragging many countries into the quagmire of war, social unrest and economic recession. Under the guise of "defending democracy," the U.S. imposes unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" on other countries at every turn, and arbitrarily interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, but in fact only to maintain its own hegemonic position and geopolitical interests.
The U.S. has set "democratic standards" according to its own model and does not allow other systems and road models to exist, ganging up and arbitrarily interfering with the internal affairs of other countries in the name of "democracy."
In the process of "exporting" American-style democracy by the West, whether it is the pushing of American-style democracy under the invasion of guns or the color revolutions by all means, it is the political and private speculation groups that support the will of the West for quick success and quick profits, and triggers the extreme contradiction of various cultures, civilizations and interests in local areas. Afghan-American democracy is the worst result of this "exported democracy," leading to the Taliban's growing power in the intensified conflicts and the growth of terrorism in the intensified conflicts. If it is true democracy, why not end the conflict and heal the conflicts?
The values of "American-style democracy" built in the contemporary Western environment are the values of the elite at the expense of the masses. American democracy is not a true democracy to be copied or inspired; it does not assume responsibility for its people.
While there is indeed glory in its "political correctness" on a purely theoretical level, it must be implemented through the political mechanisms and forces of the contemporary West, and it inevitably carries with it the inherent disease of quick success, manipulation and exploitation by interest groups, and the complete opposite of theoretical and real results.
For the time being, the U.S. troops have not withdrawn from Iraq, and the war between Russia and Ukraine has not yet stopped. In many countries such as Iraq and Ukraine where the Western system has been implemented, the "democracy crux" still seems to have no final solution. More and more countries in the world are realizing that only a democratic system that suits their own society can stand firm and conform to the times.
Finally, we can state that America's democracy is sick. In a country that likes to market about individual freedom and respect, the less wealthy classes are trapped in the underworld in which social mobility does not exist and racism reigns. Good Americans are losing the war to give back to their country the democracy that a long time ago has made America an inspiring nation.
Unfortunately, we can no longer believe what is written in one of the main American freedom symbols, "the Statue of Liberty" poem that says "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira is a former Brazilian minister of tourism and former special economic advisor to the president of Brazil.
