Do Countries Deserve Their Governments?

One claim I have heard is that every country deserves its government.

There is a problem with that claim. While some countries have only had bad governments, most have had some good ones and some bad ones. Nigeria had a bad government in 1990s; and after the death of dictator Sani Abacha the country perked up. It has had several elected governments in a row, and economically it has been booming. According to the logic of the statement, Nigeria deserves both the good and the bad governments that it had had. And that would mean that Nigerian people are qualitatively different now than they were in 1990s – a claim that is quite unsuitable to be believed.

I come from Russia, and while Russian governments there have been heavy-handed, there are ways to go between Stalin and Peter the Great. Russians do look up to strong leader; which means that whoever is the leader there has more power than he does in the United States. If they have a good guy in charge things are good; if they have a baddy in charge they aren't. Did Russia deserve both Stalin and Khruschev? Did the character of its people really change that much with the death of a hideous despot and the selection of a mostly decent person? You get the idea.

If the claim is that people need to impose upon their leaders accountability to the public, that claim is correct. However attacking the people when they are already suffering enough under one or another despot is completely unrightful behavior. There can be any number of reasons why a country could get the government that it gets. If – as happened in Sierra Leone - the military orchestrates a coup and throws out an elected government, then runs around the countryside cutting off people's hands, then no, the people of the country do not deserve such a government. They do not need attack, they need help.

So that while it is important that people have reason to create decent governments, let us not blind ourselves to situations in which bad people get into power regardless of people's input and use that power to do wrong. Once again, the same country can have good governments and bad governments within a short time of one another. In many situations compassion and understanding are in order. Do not blame the people who get their hands hacked off by the military. Confront the military that does it and then leave people free to create a functional government.