ISHWORLD WEEKLY COLUMN

July 31, 2026

1,575  words

Democracy calls for patience and humanity.

Dictatorial politics call for dominance and brutality.

What say you?    

By Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad

Columnist/Blogger At Large

I remember the day I fell in love with democracy.

I was way grown, raising a family, working a job and wondered why democracy took so long to do what it says it is – one person, one vote, freedom for all.

Not that I didn’t appreciate American-styled democracy – the concept of a national Constitution, a Bill of Rights, one person one vote and majority rule. It all sounded good until one unraveled the layers of tainted American history that did not include every American’s one vote. Only after many years did activists – both living and dead – make progress and win American-styled democracy for all, not just for some.

As a newspaper reporter in 1980s and 90s Alabama, I – as all journalists then and now – was challenged with the power of history against the slowness of democracy.

Surrounded by historical people, places and events, I faced the challenge of practicing journalism in the New South, a time when journalists of color could work freely as journalists are supposed to do, and not be encumbered and disregarded because of the color of their skin. We walked the streets that both activists and the Ku Klux Klan walked. And on some days we met people who lived during another time – when they had to choose life over death – to cast a vote.

For me, as a journalist of African-American descent, to be living and working in a place where so much American history was made to advance democracy and help a deprived people rise to their full potential, was a high honor.

More so, it was humbling to sometimes meet the living icons, legends of history when they visited Alabama to continue to make history. Again, I was both honored and humbled in their presence.

Inspired by the bravery of both petite women and men of stature, I wondered what would I have done if I had been present with them at the times and places that they paid a price to help America live up to the words of our two century old democracy? 

Yet, there were days I felt that the gift of democracy – while a blessing in concept – was hobbled by the curse of its slowness, a curse that I wished we could live without.

Then, one day, a fellow journalist offered an explanation that not only eased my frustration, it helped me to understand democracy better. 

A political reporter who covered the state government, he was young, gifted, smart and Caucasian. Speaking with the casual Southern drawl that was Deep South Alabama, he could hold your attention as he built his case for democracy. Let’s call him “B.B.”

“What are the alternatives to Democracy?” he asked rhetorically. Of course, we knew the major opponent to democracy’s one person, one vote was no vote at all. It is dictatorship!

Take a farmer, he said, who works his farm each day, planting season after season, nurturing his crops and his livestock. He not only feeds his family but helps feed the nation, perhaps even the world. And each night he goes to sleep with a high degree of certainty he would wake up the next morning and continue working his farm. Then came B.B.’s punch.

In a democracy, where change occurs over the slow march of time – let’s say the farmer’s government decides to use the farm land for an improvement project, perhaps a road or a bridge, or to build a city or town where his corn stalks are standing tall – all for the good of the community, the state and the nation, or so he is told.

Again, in a democracy to do that would require debating the merits of that decision, followed by voting by elected government officials. It is a process that could take months, even years. However, if approved, the farmer would be compensated for the loss of his farm, thereby, allowing him to rebuild his life again, somewhere else.

Now consider a dictatorship, B.B. said. The farmer goes to sleep one night and the next day soldiers are knocking at his door telling him he had to move off the farm. No reason had to be given, just pack up and leave. And if you object, face summary punishment. The word of a dictator is law and could be made on a whim.

Which world would you choose, B.B. asked?

Democracy, of course, I said.

And therein lies the dilemma of democracy, he answered back. While the process is primarily a fair process, it is not always implemented fairly – excluding some from the process and giving others extreme power to control methods of voting and who gets to vote. Change does come, but often slowly, generational.

He gets it, B.B. said of himself. The American-styled democracy, while a hallmark among governments, is not perfect. And while efforts to make it better are bearing fruit, the job is still not done. And that is why other so-called “democratic” nations, while writing democratic constitutions and appearing to be progressive, often step back from the slowness of democracy, choosing instead to bypass other elected officials and their influence and let the all-powerful leader take absolute control and do as he or she pleases.

Problem today, gone tomorrow, whether you like it or not. No time for the yackety yack of elected government representatives. Get it done and move on to solve other problems.

In the end, B.B. won me over. I came to understand that at most levels of life, the dictatorial model is applied to solving problems. A cop, a soldier, a parent, a teacher, a boss, nobody takes time to vote on what needs to be done to solve a problem. You do what you’re told or leave – the room, the house, the job, the country. No democracy here.

Yet, when it comes to nations democracy does not give us all powerful kings and queens, dictators and absolute rulers. The voice, nor the concerns nor the rights of one person is not important in a dictatorship. No time for fairness. Get it done, for better or worse. And therein lies the dilemma.

The absolute power of dictators has built a world on an unfair, false footing, devoid of humanity and fairness. And that, it seems, is the path that underdeveloped emerging nations would rather choose than the path of one person, one vote. In a democracy, unlike dictatorships, leaders can consider the rights of all their citizens, not just the rights of a few chosen ones.

The one person, one vote does not apply to all – only the dictator who rules with absolute power. Sadly, in modern times, two world wars – costing millions upon millions of lives – were due in large part to dictatorial leaders rather than democracies. Still, dictatorships continue to seize supreme power whenever they can and some emerging nations seem to favor fast track dictators over slow rolling democratic governments.  

The answer to this dilemma may lie in a future world. Meanwhile, as some Americans struggle to remain a democracy, other Americans struggle to revert today’s democracy back to a time when citizenship was based on race, gender or wealth.

Regrettably, as America’s “greatest nation on earth” moniker appears to be fading, leaders of other nations are being forced to choose right from wrong, good over evil, democracy over dictatorship. And democracy appears to be losing.

As one politically-minded immigrant said of democracy vs. dictatorship, “I want half - half. People want to do as they please but we need accountability, at all levels.” 

One researcher offered Turkey (Turkiye) as a “democratic” country in name, not action but an example of authority highly centralized within the Office of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Even though they have a 600-member parliament and opposition parties, it appears Erdogan has utilized the levers of power to sideline rivals by charging them with corruption and having them imprisoned.

Most major government decisions must be screened by him before they are enacted.  Even though Turkey has term limits and Erdogan is supposed to leave office after the 2028 elections, the government faces a constitutional loophole that makes his running for another term possible if the parliament calls for a snap election.

In yet another country, the people of Burkina Faso have decided that they want to pursue an African-style of democracy, a hybrid of sorts.

They have a prime minister and a president who is a military captain – Ibrahim Traore. He has highly centralized authority yet the popular sentiment is that as a whole he is doing what is good for the country. With that, the legislature was abolished and replaced by the People's Legislative Assembly. In January of this year all political parties in the country were deactivated.

In the final analysis, while all people of a nation have the right and a say to self-determination of their collective destiny, getting there has never been easy.

Perhaps, redemption can only be measured in the individual’s right to have a say in how their nation is run. And then live to remain free to see how it turns out.

One person, one vote for all vs. one person, one vote for one.

Democracy vs. dictatorship? It’s time for nations to know the difference and to choose the best path for all humanity.

(ISHWORLD: The International Search for Humanity is a complimentary column created and distributed to media by freelance journalist & blogger Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad. Based in St. Louis, Mo., he can be reached via ishworldcolumn@gmail.com or his website at https://payhip.com/ISHWORLDcolumns).

Editors – Graphic images accompany this article and can be found on the website. 

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