Robert Buddan, Contributor
THE DEMOCRATIC presidential nomination campaign is in full swing in the United States.
The states will begin voting in January next and the party expects that a nominee will be determined by early March.
For a small region like ours with our fate falling under the shadow cast by U.S. politics, we need to know who the next president might be and what this could mean for us.
There are clear differences between what President George W. Bush has proven to be and what the Democratic candidates promise to be.
The differences are so clear that many Americans say their society is now quite polarised. There is certainly passion and anger among many who I hear on the phone-in programmes on C-Span.
At this point, Howard Dean is the front-runner and has been endorsed by Al Gore. He was a virtual unknown from the small state of Vermont but has gathered momentum consistently since April and now is the one to beat. This is precisely because he is the one most different from Bush.
REINVENTING DEMOCRACY
Since the demise of communism, liberal democrats have declared that western democracy has won the ideological contest. An air of triumphalism set in.
But this could not explain continuing alienation from democracy in the advanced democracies themselves. The signs kept showing up in lower levels of voting and steady declines in membership and activism in parties while surveys exposed high and growing levels of distrust of politicians.
It was this malaise that a young Tony Blair exploited while relabelling his party, New Labour.
In the U.S., Ross Perot tried to break through the established order as an independent and John McCain led a charge against big money in American politics.
None of these movements were really transformative and the political culture of these democracies remains unchanged.
Howard Dean is the only candidate among the democratic hopefuls who has gone to the heart of the problem. He says that America not only needs a new president, it needs a new culture of government in Washington and a new democratic party.
Dean and Gore are talking about transformation as we are.
Dean is upset about big money in politics through corrupt campaign finance; special interest lobbies; unreliable voting machines and the Electoral College.
He is upset by Bush's attacks on freedom under the guise of homeland security. He is upset by what American democracy has become.
But he goes beyond the others by pledging to establish a commission on democracy, controlled by the people and not congress or the parties, to reassess these many controversial and unacceptable aspects of the system.
SEPARATION OF POWERS
Dean will not depart from separation of powers but certainly intends to clean it up.
As the House passed the country's new budget and entered its Christmas recess, a most passionate debate ensued on that subject. The Democrats accused the Republicans of using underhanded and unacceptable practices to bend the rules of the House to pass legislation against the spirit of separation of powers and congressional integrity.
Representative Steny Hoyer asked if the country was a kingdom, a dictatorship or a democracy. Then, in plain reference to the separation of powers principle, reminded the Republicans that "the legislature does not work for the executive".
Representative Nancy Pelosi accused the Republicans of deliberately delaying the vote on legislation to midnight and early morning (for which she cited many examples) while Americans were asleep and could not follow the debate.
She accused the Republicans of running a government "of the few, for the few and by the few"; of violating accepted rules and abusing power.
She claimed that a Democratic Congressman was bribed $100,000 to vote with the Republicans under threat that if he did not do so they would make sure that his son, who is running for Congress, would not get elected.
She instructed that since the U.S. preached democracy to the rest of the world, it needed to set a better example.
The Republicans, she said, were not doing so.
Dean's campaign unravels the romantic view of the American separation of powers model and his presidency would refocus democracy to serve communities and bring young people and the alienated back into the political process.
His efforts would contribute to our own thinking about finance campaign reform, grassroots democracy and one that puts more emphasis on social welfare.
As Governor of Vermont, Dean has run what some Americans call something like a socialist state. Vermont has the best health care system in the U.S. and public and private sector do not compete but, in their own ways, try to serve people.
FOREIGN POLICY
All of the democratic candidates have hit hard at Bush's foreign policy.
But it is Dean who, from the start, came out publicly against the decision to invade Iraq. The candidates all criticise Bush's foreign policy for its militarism, unilateralism, and arrogance.
John Kerry calls that foreign policy "the most inept, arrogant and reckless" in modern American history. He and others pledge to rebuild America's relations with the United Nations and the world. They wish to take the U.S. back into the Kyoto Agreement on climate change and the International Court of Justice.
John Kerry's foreign policy thinking seems most developed, especially on the world environment.
Kerry promises to fight against corporate corruption and like Dean and John Edwards, is quite outspoken about the special interests that have captured American domestic and foreign policies.
The candidate with the strongest military background, Wesley Clarke, says he will follow the principle "right makes might" rather than the reverse. He says he will go to war only if absolutely necessary and like Dean and Kerry, promises to exhaust all diplomatic avenues before doing so.
There are some specific issues that are of interest to the Caribbean. Like these democratic candidates, the Caribbean believes in the rule of international law and cooperation through the United Nations.
This is the position we took in opposition to military action against Iraq. We also believe in the Kyoto Agreement and the International Criminal Court at cost of intimidation by the Bush administration.
Some candidates, like Dick Gephardt and John Kerry insist on a new energy policy that would lessen America's dependence on Middle East oil in opposition to the Bush-Cheney oil interests that lock them into the Middle East.
An alternative energy policy would complement that which Ambassador Hylton is working on for Jamaica.
A very important issue is that of trade. Some candidates use the term "fair trade". Gephardt says he believes trade should not only be free but fair.
This is what we in the Caribbean believe. But listening to the candidates, fair trade means what is good for America's trade balance and the American worker. It is almost as if they believe that the developing countries are guilty of unfair trade because they offer cheap labour that attracts U.S. companies. Yet, some candidates do want better human and environmental standards in trade agreements.
However there is a worry for the Caribbean offshore economies. Dean, Edwards and especially Kerry complain about tax evasion by transnationals who register their business in offshore jurisdictions.
On the positive side, the democrats have run a stronger economy and this would be a good boost to Caribbean tourism and investments.
Howard Dean is not as specific on foreign policy as Kerry but I like the spirit in which he plans to govern. He believes that the U.S. must rise to the ideals and morals of the rest of the world; that the US must respect other people and countries if it hopes to be respected by them. He says he will restore honour, dignity and respect for the world through a policy of cooperation.
Caribbean leaders and people should find ways to get our issues onto the agenda of the candidates issues like immigration, deportation, drugs and guns.We should encourage our people who have the vote to vote for candidates with good Caribbean issues. We should support candidates sensitive to the special situation of small states as we negotiate the FTAA.
These elections are as important to us as our elections. We must act like global people and influence politics beyond the region since that politics defines ours.
Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. E-mail: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm
