"The 40 Percent Nation"

David Brooks is at his 100 percent best, which is none too good, when he assesses Egypt's ability to master a democratic form of government.  He concludes, "It’s a 40 percent nation, mediocre in the world rankings, but not a basket case," but, "if led wisely, it has a reasonable shot at joining the normal, democratic world." He writes,

Many countries end up in a ‘gray zone,’ with semi-functioning governments and powerful oligarchies.... But the quality of the educational system is terrible.... The government’s economic reform effort illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the governing institutions.... Socially, the country seems stymied. The biggest gap, by far, is political.

The Constant Weader comments:

Mr. Brooks, if you had not kept typing the word “Egypt” in between the sentences I cited, I would have thought you were writing about the U.S.

Egypt has the one thing a country seems to need to govern itself – a middle class. That’s how we got started, after all. We had a group of educated men and gentlemen farmers, and a whole lot of illiterate men and women, some of whom were slaves, and none of whom was allowed to vote or otherwise enjoy full participation in the government.

Please look at the history of our own democracy before you look down your nose at Egypt and label it a “40 percent nation.” And, speaking of fractions of the whole, even though Egyptians invented arithmetic, they don’t count anyone as three-fifths of a person. I’d say the odds are at least as good as ours were that Egyptians can develop a functioning democratic system. They won't want to use us as a model, though.