Ukraine: Aristotle teaches us that it is not the system, but the animating principle behind a system that makes for its’ just or unjust character

Do we really want to die for democracy?

by Peter Strzelecki Rieth

Are the neoconservatives who demand that Ukraine adopt a western model of democracy really thinking about the common good? Can they answer President Putin’s question and tell us which particular model of Western democracy they would like to impose there, and why its’ imposition is morally justified over and against the legal and democratic will of a majority that elected the ousted Ukrainian President?

The people of the West are often told by the spokesmen for their various governments that we must fight for democracy in distant lands. Little effort is ever expended by these government officials in explaining precisely what they mean by “democracy”. The “democracy” we are told we must fight for is purposefully vague because the people of the West, using their common sense, will assume upon hearing of “democracy” that what is meant is the fundamental rights they enjoy in their own country. However, whenever an actual dialogue is held on the matter, it turns out that “democracy” is complex, not simple, and the rationale for a “war for democracy” withers away.

Case in point: two years ago, President Vladimir Putin was asked by a pair of French journalists about the chance for a “Western model democracy” in Russia. President Putin replied:

“Can you explain to me what you mean by the Western democratic model? There’s one model in France, and a different model in the US. At some point in the past, I had a lot of discussions with my American colleagues. I would ask them: how come the majority of your people voted for one person, yet another person becomes President? ‘That’s because we have the Electoral College,’ my American colleagues replied to me. ‘Don’t touch this thing. We’ve got used to this system and we won’t change it.’”

Like President Putin’s American colleagues, I am also often asked by students or friends here in Poland about the Electoral College. The question usually comes up every four years when there is an election in the US.

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