Introduction
An article titled “The United States Should Promote Democracy in Africa” provides a transcript of the speech given to the US Senate by Feingold Russ in which he argues that the United States should actively promote the process of building democracy in numerous African countries that are currently struggling because of the erosion of freedoms. According to Feingold’s website, he represented the State of Wisconsin in the US Senate for eighteen years (Russ for Wisconsin par. 2).
In his capacity as a senator, he has visited 72 counties of the state providing support for Wisconsinites and promoting their rights (Russ for Wisconsin par. 4). Taking into consideration the fact that Feingold has served as Special Envoy of the United States for the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo at the State Department, it could be argued that he has enough authority to speak about the state of democracy in Africa (Russ for Wisconsin par. 7).
Analysis
The senator notes that both previous and current administrations have been committed to the task of assisting every nation that is moving towards sustainable democracy. He stressed that even though many African nations have achieved significant democratic strides, there is still a serious threat to the existence of the representative government of the continent (Feingold 38). Taking into consideration that elections are an essential part of democracy, it is necessary to monitor the election process in numerous African countries in order to minimize the harmful influence of wealthy interests on voting outcomes.
Feingold expresses his concern over the state of democracy in Darfur which has not held multiparty elections in 24 years (Feingold 38). The senator also highlights the political situation in Ethiopia which is notorious for reducing democratic space since 2005 (Feingold 38). He is especially worried about a law called the Charities and Societies Proclamation that has been passed by the Ethiopian Parliament.
The law imposes restrictions on the funding of civil society groups acting within the country and makes it illegal to receive more than ten percent of subsidy that comes from abroad. Another law that is of particular concern to the senator is the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation that uses the extremely broad definition of terrorism making it possible to include illegitimate all forms of protest against the autocratic regime (Feingold 39).
Taking into consideration that the United States spends hundreds of millions of dollars on the promotion of democratic process in Ethiopia, it is vitally important to convince the country’s leaders to release political prisoners and revoke restrictive measures on human rights. Feingold also argues that Burundi is on its way to becoming a functioning democracy. The country has been able to achieve significant progress in moving towards the representative government after the devastating events of the1990s related to political violence that took the lives of more than 100, 000 people (Feingold 40). However, the peace process in Burundi might be held back because of the illegal actions of the National Intelligence Service that tries to suppress political opposition.
Conclusion
The United States should actively promote the process of building democracy in numerous African countries that are currently struggling because of the erosion of freedoms. It is obvious to me that without American support of the institutions promoting democratic values and opposing existing autocratic and oligarchic regimes in Africa, many countries on the continent would not be able to determine their own destiny in a fair manner.
Works Cited
Feingold, Russ. “The United States Should Promote Democracy in Africa.” Africa 22.1 (2012): 37-41. Print.
Russ for Wisconsin. About Russ. n.d. Web.