Rose speaks on democracy

Professor Richard Rose delivered a presentation entitled “Governing Without Democracy — and Democratization Backwards?”

The head of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen addressed Tulane about the difficulties involved in establishing a democracy.

to students and professors at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Norman Mayer.

Professor Rose is the director of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy at the University of Aberdeen and the author of numerous books, including “Understanding Post-Communist Transformation: A Bottom Up Approach and Parties and Elections in New European Democracies.”

Professor Tony Pereira, chair of Tulane’s political science department, and Professor Raymond Taras of the political science department were involved in organizing the lecture.

Professor Pereira said he was very pleased that Rose agreed to give a lecture at Tulane.

“When I found out he was coming here, I wanted to invite him to speak,” Pereira said.

In his lecture, Rose talked about the requirements for a state and the challenges that Iraq and Afghanistan face.

“A state is something that has defined boundaries, something that Afghanistan and Iraq ultimately lack,” Rose said. “If you don’t have a state, what are you trying to democratize?”

Rose drew a distinction when it came to Afghanistan, however.

“Because, in part, of its indeterminate boundaries with Pakistan, there’s no state there [to democratize],” Rose said.
Pereira said that he hoped that Rose’s lecture taught students more about what a true democracy is.

“This lecture was an antidote to the idea that it is very easy to spread democracy,” Pereira said. “Students must not confuse elections with democracy. We value elections as part of our democratic tradition, but you can have elections without democracy.”

Taras said he hoped that the lecture helped students learn how to think about politics and the world.

“The purpose is for students to revel in critical thought,” Taras said. “It’s not about learning about Russia or England or Iraq — it’s to follow the critical process.”

When talking about the criteria for a democracy, Rose emphasized the need for free competition for offices and said that in a democracy “losers can fight back, and winners have constraints on their power.”

Rose also said that universal suffrage was absolutely necessary to prevent a country from simply becoming a “constitutional oligarchy.”

In his lecture, Rose also addressed the state of the world’s economy.

“Can a government go bankrupt?” Rose said. “The bad news is that they can’t; they just keep refinancing.”

In the question and answer session following the lecture, an audience member asked Rose if he believes if it is possible for Iraq and Afghanistan to become functional democracies.

“In Iraq, Saddam [Hussein’s regime] was a functional totalitarian regime,” Rose said. “You want to take the totalitarian, but leave the functional regime.”