On Palestinian "Democracy"

Francis Fukuyama in the Yale Israel Journal on March 28, 2005:

But there is no question that if you have, for example, an extremely tribal culture that assigns political power according to kinship or personal loyalty relationships, it’s hard to reconcile that with anything that looks like a modern democracy.

I think that societies that place religion in front or center in politics are going to have a harder running. They can have a democracy, but it’s very hard for them to have a liberal democracy. And I think that there are all sorts of attitudes having to do with the role of violence. For example: whether to use violence to solve political disputes or whether to use compromise and dialogue. I think all of those help in the establishment of a democracy.

I do not think that Israel can do much to culturally change the Palestinians other than simply existing and providing an example. It seems to me that the example of Israel in the proximity has already done a fair amount to change Palestinian attitudes towards democracy, towards business, and towards entrepreneurship.

There has probably been more cultural learning than the Palestinians would ever admit to publicly, but I think it has probably happened. But it’s a slow process and I don’t know that there is a lot that you can do to really speed it up; because if you become too explicit and open about it, you are going to make people less willing to change their attitudes.