There are few peoples in the world who have been as devoted to achieving democracy as the Sudanese people. Although their quest for democracy has been unrelenting, stable democratic governance has so far eluded Sudan, not least because of foreign pressures.
In the latest historic episode of revolutionary upheaval, which brought down President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the political transition failed to keep the country on a democratic path.
Subsequently, a bloody war broke out between two generals that has sown chaos and destruction. At present, survival is the main priority for the Sudanese people, but once the conflict is over, discussions about the governance and political future of the country will again come to the fore and there must be a clear vision of what that would look like.
A democratic transformation is critical to resolving Sudan’s many problems, but it must meet the needs of the Sudanese people and not be shaped by outside powers. The United States (US), in particular, which has tried to influence the post- Bashir transition, not only has a long track record of failure in democracy promotion in Sudan and its neighbourhood, but is also itself failing domestically on key democratic indicators.
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Failed US democracy promotion
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For decades now, the United States (US) has been promoting its understanding of democracy across the Global South, including in Sudan. American diplomats, think tanks and non-governmental organisations have all worked to press foreign governments to hold elections, maintain freedom of speech and uphold human rights.
That drive has largely failed to produce any tangible results for two reasons.
First, democracy in the US itself has been on the decline. All three pillars of US democracy promotion have seen backsliding in the US. In the past decade, claims of foreign interference, allegations of “stolen” elections and political upheaval have raised fears that elections can no longer guarantee the orderly transition of power in the country.
Free speech has also been under attack. During the Covid pandemic and then the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, many people have been deplatformed, defamed and fired for taking positions that do not conform to official narratives. Book bans are on the rise across the country, as is the censorship of critical voices on social media.
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The US has also seen a spotty human rights record domestically, which was reflected in a 2023 UN report highlighting the US’s failure to abide by many of its obligations under the UN Covenants on Civil and Political Rights.
Second, US democracy promotion has been conditioned and shaped by US economic and political interests. Washington demands that countries agree to the Western-controlled International Monetary Fund and World Bank overseeing their national economies as part of their democratic transitions. It also requires that the foreign policies of countries in the Global South align with its own.
But governments which submit to these demands do so often at the expense of the interests of their own citizens. This contradicts the very idea of democracy, which is premised on national sovereignty.
Indeed, the US’s rendering of democracy is foremost designed to ensure US domination, which is why countries in the Global South would be ill-advised to follow its diktats.
Sudan’s quest for democracy
The narrow US and Western model of democracy does not have a good track record in Sudan. Every time it has been applied during a period of political openness following the overthrow of a military regime, it has unsurprisingly failed to solve Sudan’s daunting problems and has been quickly displaced.
In the 2000s, US democracy promotion efforts in Sudan intensified, as the country’s second civil war was drawing to a close. The regional peace process – heavily influenced by the US – produced the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of al-Bashir and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.
The two sides were pressured to agree to a democratic transformation either in a united Sudan or in the resulting components should the southern Sudanese opt for secession in a referendum.
Despite the enormous political capital that the US invested in this project, the peace agreement and process served to consolidate al-Bashir’s government.
In the following decade, the failure of the Sudanese regime to respond to the demands of the politically and economically marginalised peoples deepened poverty and fed conflicts in the peripheries of Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, southern Blue Nile, and eastern Sudan.—Al Jazeera
