Last weekend taught us something very important about the presence and execution of democracy in developing authoritarian states, and that's the importance that the leaders of these various states place on establishing a mandate of control from their population. Regardless of how you feel about the progress of democracy in Iraq or Afghanistan, democracy here in the United States, or even wide spread electoral abuses in developing states, the fact is that those voters in Russia and Venezuela this past weekend were able to voice their opinions, for better or for worse.While these elections leave much, much, much more to be desired, they can at least be seen as a step in the right direction of empowering various populations and making their voices and opinions matter. Despite the authoritarian rule in these two countries, the lack of electoral supervision by international agencies, the manipulation of media and the domination of politics by the current parties in power, in Russia concern over how many voters would actually turn out spurred intsense action by the Kremlin. Except for a few months in the middle of 1917, for the decades leading up to the very last years of the Soviet Union, the Russian people had not even known the power of their electoral ability. Even with the overwhelming victory of the President Vladimir Putin-backed United Russia Party, and the lockout of more liberal parties from parliamentary seats, all hope should not be lost. These are the first steps in a system of more voter power-a process that will take generations upon generations to mold. Putin, who used the election as a mandate of support, realized the importance of his citizens and spent the last weeks urging Russians to go to the polls. Yes, a large voter turn out and victory for United Russia (both numbers were more than 60 percent) will be used by Putin to support his claim that his leadership is popularly accepted, but the fact that he had to spend so much time and focus engaging his population shows recognition of their importance.While we can breathe a small, quick sigh of relief that Putin did not try anything this week that threatened the delicate Constitutional legitimacy in Russia, a much more encouraging weekend result came from our south.
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