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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Mongolia's Democracy Takes Root with U.S. Assistance
Mongolia's Democracy Takes Root with U.S. Assistance
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A voter looks down at his ballot.
Jeff Goodson, USAID
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by Michael Miklaucic
While Iraq and Afghanistan struggle to stand up democratic governments, far away in a distant part of the world a striking democratic social contract is taking hold among the people of Mongolia.
On June 27, the country held its eighth national election since emerging from communism in 1991. It is the third time that Mongolians have significantly changed their government through free elections—a claim no other Central Asian country can make.
The result is a major vindication for those who argue that democracy can take hold in non-Western cultures, and that, with modest, well-targeted support, democracies can be built in lands with no prior experience of democratic traditions.
But there is also an implicit warning that democratic transitions cannot be taken for granted.
In the 800 years since Genghis Khan united the Mongolian tribes, Mongolia has been a nomad empire, an oriental khanate, a theocracy, and a Chinese vassal state. Between 1921 and 1991, Mongolian government was modeled on the Soviet system—not the most fertile historical soil for the emergence of a vibrant democracy. For the past four years, the Mongolian Peoples' Revolutionary Party (MPRP) ruled with 72 out of 76 parliamentary seats. Critics accused the MPRP of ruling arrogantly, with blatant disregard for democratic norms. Now people have voted for change. The June 27 election results were contested in two districts because of ambiguities in election laws. But the controversy was sorted out by mid-August.
The result is an incoming parliament that will be roughly split between the MPRP and its opposition, the Motherland Democratic Party.
This coalition gives hope to observers, who believe that, by working together, the two parties may be able to address and resolve nettlesome issues—such as land privatization and electoral reform—that neither could have taken up successfully on its own.
Freedoms in Mongolia go beyond free elections. Civil liberties are widely respected: religious freedom is untrammeled, and there is no ethnic strife. Mongolia has a relatively effective human rights commission, and has taken steps to improve conditions in prisons and detention centers, steps that are usually low priorities for poor countries.
USAID's democracy program over the past 13 years has supported Mongolia's democratic leaders and a nascent civil society movement. This led to the first major peaceful alternation of political power in 1996, when democratic leaders swept into power.
Since then, USAID has endeavored to ensure that elections and political processes remain competitive and supported the development of an independent judiciary.
There can be no question that USAID has helped create effective and accountable governance in Mongolia. Competition in politics is fierce, yet nonviolent.
And with substantial support from the Agency, every Mongolian court now has a computerized case management system, every judge has a bench book of law and procedure, and soon the general public will be able to monitor the status of any case on public terminals inside the courts. The judiciary is more efficient and transparent, and the public is growing to trust and respect it.
"The judicial reform project is of critical importance to Mongolian democracy," Mongolian President Bagabandi told USAID Administrator Natsios during a recent visit in Washington, D.C.
Despite these gains, democratic transitions cannot be taken for granted. Ochirbat, Mongolia's first president—a former communist leader who presided over Mongolia's transition to democracy—credits USAID with playing a "vital historical role in supporting the Mongolian democratic movement."
But he also cites erosion of press freedom, corruption, and centralization of power as clear and present threats to Mongolian democracy today. "America should not stop supporting Mongolian democracy now," he says.
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