By Nessuna

It was a major effort to open my eyes in the morning, especially as I had the day off from work, but I knew that I couldn’t miss the lecture “Democracy and the Future of South Caucasus” by Dr. Daniel Warner. Even so, because of problems with directions and the taxi driver, while I did leave in time I only managed to catch the second part of the lecture, but that’s a different story. Anyhow, even though I only made it to for the questions & answers session, it was worth it.

Highlighted are the main points from the lecture.

The Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the United States was not merely a political one. It was also an ideological one dealing with how society should be organized. In 1992, after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Francis Fukuyama wrote an article that made him famous. Dr. Warner admitted that he was jealous of that man, but that is not the reason he disagrees with Fukuyama. The End of History claimed that the ideological argument as to how people should live is over.

There is no more thesis and antithesis — democracy and capitalism are the answer to that question. The end of Soviet Union was not just the end of the Cold War. It was the end of history.

The way the West is trying to promote the democracy is just that, and based on the fact that it “won the Cold War”. For the West, “democracy is neither an end nor a means. It is propaganda, because it shows they won the war.” The West is a seller, and it sells democracy. However, the question remains whether countries want to buy it, and if yes, how and why? Another question, that begs to be answered is whether Georgia better off now than before the rose revolution? Is Ukraine aso better off today than before the orange revolution?

Everybody is watching China now, because if China succeeds in its modernization without democratization, it will prove Francis Fukuyama wrong. And while talking about Dick Cheyney’s last remark on Russia, Dr. Warner said it was simply intended to antagonize Russia. The same is true for George W. Bush’s visit to Georgia. He said that “you can’t antagonize Russia, because it’s a huge and important country that is going through a different phase trying to realize that they are not an empire anymore.”

If you only have a political system without a political culture it won’t work, and the main point to consider is what do we start with? Dr. Warner is more interested in building the culture first, and that’s what he is doing — trying to encourage people to build such a culture. Many people in the South Caucasus would agree.

Dr. Daniel Warner is the author of 9 books and over 30 publications, most of which are available in English here.