The League of Democracies

An earlier failed experiment,

The current problems with the US election are disturbing. What happens if elections can no longer be trusted even in the world’s leading democracy? Could the US now descend into anarchy or dictatorship? Where would that leave the rest of us?

This brings to mind something I suggested here some time ago: a League of Democratic Nations. One important function of such an international group would be to ensure the legitimacy of one another’s elections.

We cannot rely on the UN for this: the UN includes nations that are not themselves democratic. Just as we cannot rely on the UN to protect human rights.

If, however, we had a consortium of democratic nations, teams of observers could be sent whenever a member was holding elections, and they could certify that the process did or did not meet established standards. As foreigners, they would not have any vested interest, as everybody charged with managing and with counting votes in the US currently does. Or even if the observer from New Zealand did have some partisan interest, in seeing one party and not another winning an American election, said partisan interest would be unlikely to also align with the interests of the observer from Norway.

If the election was declared fraudulent, and the host country did not invalidate it, the obvious sanction would be to eject that nation from the alliance, presumably losing some important advantages.

Among said important advantages might be this: should any member government be overthrown by undemocratic processes, a coup, say, or a revolution, the other member states would be bound to intervene jointly to re-establish the lawful government.

As an additional incentive, other members of the alliance could be bound to grant sanctuary for any electorally-defeated leader who seeks it, without possibility of extradition. This makes it personally worthwhile for leaders to sign on, and guarantees continuing democracy at the same time. Too many fledgling democracies fall into the folly of prosecuting former leaders for crimes while in office. Doing so gives leaders a powerful incentive to refuse to hand over power. Their punishment, at worst, becomes exile.

To join the alliance might require one’s elections to be observed and certified legitimate a set number of times—perhaps three election cycles. A certain standard of human rights should also be required.

The alliance should also be a military one: member states come to one another’s aid in case of attack from any outside power.

If such an association were set up, I suspect it would go a long way towards expanding democracy around the world.