A couple of weeks ago as I was walking through campus I saw a message chalked on the sidewalk stating the following: “the CIA has helped overthrow 15 democracies.” On first glance this sounds as though the CIA is engaged in nefarious activities throughout the world. However, after thinking about it I realized one should not make this judgment hastily.

The idea of overthrowing democracies sounds bad, but why? What is it about the democratic form of government that makes it good in the first place?

Many of our modern concepts of democracy come from the political philosopher John Locke. He believed that if everyone had the ability to be part of the political process, it would prevent the formation of tyrannical systems of government, which violate human rights.

So it would appear from Locke’s philosophy that the CIA was imposing a tyranny on the peoples of these countries to benefit the interests of the US.

This is where the value of patriotism comes into question for some. Should patriotic support of U.S. interests supersede democracy? This is a valid question, but I believe in many cases it is a pretext for anti-American rhetoric.

Now, in some cases, this would be a valid criticism. After all, why should one country’s interest come before another country’s democracy?

After questioning the concept of patriotism myself, I came to the conclusion that in the case of America, patriotism is a bit different than elsewhere. We have democratic principles built into the Constitution, which makes us like many other nations.

Unlike any other nation, however, America was founded on the proposition in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights.”

American patriotism is not just fealty to a particular nation, it’s also adherent to the ideology of equality and inalienable human rights laid out in the Declaration.

The whole point of democracy is to protect the inalienable rights of the people from tyrants. Our democratic republic works well because it is predicated on the idea of inalienable human rights as stated in the Declaration. However, what would happen if this kind of government were applied where people do not have the same respect for human rights?

A democracy where the majority does not believe in inalienable rights would be a tyranny as well; it would just be a tyranny of the majority rather than the tyranny by a dictator. In those cases we would be justified in overthrowing such tyrannical governments.

In today’s world, this is a reality and not just an experiment. A few years back, a poll done by the Pew Research Center showed that majorities in various countries supported the use of terrorist tactics. Immediately following Sept. 11, there were large mobs of people in some countries cheering on the deaths of innocent Americans.

A democracy formed by populations where these kinds of attitudes are common would create societies that disrespect the basic human right to life. In cases where these attitudes are directed toward Americans the states promoting these attitudes would naturally be enemies of the West.

Not only would the CIA need to overthrow them out of political necessity as they would pose a threat to American security interests, but they would be morally justified in doing so to defend the human rights that the majorities in these states oppose.

Democracy is a good thing, but respect for human rights should come before it. Democracies that disrespect human rights should therefore not be supported unquestioningly. America shouldn’t be shy in distinguishing friends from enemies when human rights depend on the distinction. In some cases it would be both patriotic and morally imperative to oppose democracies that disrespect human rights.

> Comments