Democrazy:
n. A system of government that is a parody of original Greek democracy with particular reference to the US style "democracy" with its strong emphasis on the role of elections. The word was derived in the UK from the tendency of Americans to replace the 's' sound of English with a 'z'. Hence English: "democratisation" becomes US: "democratization", suggesting English "democracy" would be pronounced by Americans as: "democrazy". In the US the term seems to have developed directly from "demo-crazy" and is applied to government in which there is absurd or inequitable characteristics or in which senseless or unjust events occur.
Democrazy – exaggerating the need for everyone to vote and giving politically correct respect to lesbians – Column (National Review, August 31, 1992 by Florence King)
The earliest reference to "democrazy" appears to be in 1946 in the Japanese war trials. Shumei Okawa the former Japanese propaganda minister is reported to have leapt to his feet and shouted aloud in broken English: "I hate United States! It is democrazy!" (1989 Los Angeles Times article). The word was then used as the title for a film of 2005, the 2003 album by Damon Albarn and the Smith's album of 1991.
Democrazy in Iraq
The word came to prominence in the UK during the Iraqi occupation when the US neo-cons were constantly heard referring (often in a strong southern accent) to the need to "democratiZe" Iraq:
"She says we're going to democratize Iraq, and I said, 'Condi, you're not going to democratize Iraq,' and she said, 'You know, you're just stuck in the old days,' and she comes back to this thing that we've tolerated an autocratic Middle East for fifty years and so on and so forth," (Scowcroft, discussion conversation with Condoleezza Rice in 2003 when-national security adviser)
UK commentators then began referring to the US idea of "democrazy":
"Newest democrazy stunts pulled by US in Iraq" (17 May 2003,Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.)
The real irony, however, was that any right-wing neo-con would wish to be an advocate of democracy. Democracy derives from the Greek "demos" (the common people) and "Kratia" (force) and seems to have originally been a term of rebuke meaning "rule by the ordinary people" or even "mob-rule". It referred specifically to the huge Athenian Juries chosen by lot and the system of government whereby common people were allotted to sit in the governing committees of the Athenian city state. Paradoxically, far from elections being essential to democracy, there are many references by Greek writers to allotment clearly showing that they considered this form of selection to be democratic and elections to be oligarchical and therefore undemocratic.
"it is thought to be democratic for the offices to be assigned by lot, for them to be elected is oligarchic," (Aristotle Aristotle, Politics 4.1294b)
Far from giving power to the "mob" as democracy implies, the "neo-con" focus on elections was seen by many as a thinly veiled attempt to remove power from the Iraqi people: foisting on them a US style electoral system with its "archiles heal" of the political donations to campaign funds through which the US oil companies could to effectively control the Iraqi political process.
"We have a democrazy not a democracy. Democracy is a numbers game and if your electorate can be fooled because they are ignorant, then the game goes to the cheaters and the rabblerousers." (Enrique Zobel, "A Matter of Conscience," BusinessWorld, June 13, 2001)
The term is also likely to be an ironic reference to the US assertion that it is the quintessential "democracy", a claim very hard to justify in a country that was founded with a constitution based on the Roman "republic" where official were elected in contrast to the inherent egalitarian ideals of random jury-selection espoused by the Greeks.
America can democratize anything. Imagine for a moment that we revived the "natural aristocrat" theory held by the Founding Fathers. (Democrazy - exaggerating the need for everyone to vote and giving politically correct respect to lesbians – Column Florence King)
But perhaps the biggest irony of the neocon evangelisation of "democracy" is that up until the 20th century, democracy was a political philosophy embraced by the left (hence the name "democrats" for the US left and the common use of "Democratic" in commonist country names).
By Katherine Rothwell
