Learning about democracy in South Africa. (Webbsite).

Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th Century French politician and writer, believed it inevitable that democracy would spread worldwide: `The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.'

But true democracy remains a dream for many of the more than 500 delegates expected for the World Movement for Democracy's Third (biennial) Assembly in Durban, South Africa, this April. For them the workshops on a plethora of democratic themes may be especially helpful on the day when popular rule, comes to their countries. In the meantime, they should go home with new skills to help them in more limited `democracies'--where they work, their places of worship, in other organizations and, perhaps, even in their homes.

COLLABORATIVE

The catalyst for the Durban assembly--as it was for the earlier ones in New Delhi and Sao Paulo--is the Washington, DC-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED). This Congress-chartered nonpartisan NGO collaborates with a large number of organizations with similar goals in many countries. NED has worked assiduously, often behind-the-scenes, to help move the democratic process forward--for example, in eastern and central Europe and the Balkans.

Art Kaufman of NED is project manager for the World Movement for Democracy Assembly. But he stresses the collaborative nature of the planning. NED provides the Secretariat but is not there to dictate but to help facilitate and support. It is shaping the event jointly with a number of South African institutes. For too long and too often, we Americans have tried to tell others how to conduct their affairs. It is surely time for us to do more listening. We, too, have much to learn.

In his classic book, Democracy in America, de Tocqueville was happy with much of what he found on a tour of the country. But he also warned of the dangers Americans faced in protecting and nurturing their democratic system. He recognized the threat that would result from a majority putting too many--and too costly--demands on their government. We've seen what he was talking about in myriad ways as interest groups pressure city halls, statehouses, Congress and the White House for project or programmes they want without the tax hikes to finance them.

We've seen, too, how many of our politicians and corporate executives have abused the trust invested in them. They've turned freedom into license and dealt heavy blows to the system we cherish. Perhaps remembering de Tocqueville's warning, President John F Kennedy challenged Americans in his inaugural address to `ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country'. If the US has proved anything, it is the enduring importance of that challenge. Other countries, struggling with or toward democracy, could learn from the mistakes we've made.

NUTS AND BOLTS 

For all the nuts-and-bolts topics the Durban workshops will cover, one of the most useful could be that on the moral foundations of self-governance. The weaker those foundations, the weaker a nation--or organization of any kind.

Clearly South Africa is an appropriate venue for the Third Assembly. As Christopher Landsberg, Co-Director of the Centre for Africa's International Relations and one of the Assembly's steering committee, put it: `In this country, you have both the striking achievements of a recent transition to democracy as well as the continuing challenges that both new and long-established democracies face. In the spirit of the World Movement, South Africans will teach, but also learn from, the many participants who will attend from around the world.'

Appropriately, the assembly will end on South Africa's Freedom Day.

Robert Webb is a former columnist and editorial writer for the `Cincinnati Enquirer'. He lives in Alexandria, Va, USA.