I do not understand why Canada or other countries absolutely insist that every country on the planet be democratic in 2006.
I gave the example of Malaysia and Singapore, which are not, strictly speaking, democracies: they are hybrid regimes. In other words, they are countries whose political system has many democratic features, but also some authoritarian features as well. However, these regimes are stable and peaceful. They are countries that now have economic and social conditions that are the envy of many other countries.
I would just like to mention one point: 85% of the housing in Singapore is subsidized. People have such good living conditions that the fact that freedom of the press is incomplete, and the PAP must always be re-elected does not cause huge problems for people, particularly since over 76% of the population is Chinese and the culture is Confucianist. As you know, it is a culture in which citizens must respect authority. Consequently, the people of Singapore do not want a lot of individual freedom.
I have to tell you quite honestly that I do not lose sleep over this. I prefer a regime such as the one in Singapore or Malaysia to an extremely weak democracy where there is corruption and where part of the country is controlled by bands of drug traffickers, and so on. In such a case, democracy is meaningless.
There was a time when aid was focused on economic and social development. The question of democracy became a priority after the end of the cold war. There was a desire to extend the democratic model quickly to every country in the world. However, I repeat that this is wishful thinking and will not work. It cannot work. I repeat, democracy cannot work in a very poor country. There is a great deal of documentation that proves this. One of the greatest American sociologists, Seymour Martin Lipset, explained that very well in a number of things he has written.
Economic and social development changes people's culture. It creates middle classes. Thus it changes the structure of society, and the middle classes are able to negotiate political compromises with the elites and these will in part also meet the demands of the poor. This is how democracy can be established and can last. These cultural changes, these changes in political behaviour, are the result of industrialization, urbanization, education and so on.