Democracy for all of humankind

Charlottesville-based institutions aren’t the only local entities helping to nurture democracy in distant corners of the world.

The Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier is also involved in such international efforts. The center fittingly honors, and continues the work of, the man who is considered the Father of the American Constitution and who became young America’s fourth president.

The eight members of the Legal Society of Zimbabwe spent several days at the Orange County center before visiting legal scholars and international law and policy experts at the University of Virginia. They also visited Monticello on July 4 for the naturalization swearing-in ceremony.

The Zimbabwe attorneys are part of an effort to create a new constitution for their country. A draft constitution already is undergoing review, and the attorneys hope to be able to influence its ultimate shape.

Zimbabwe is a politically fragmented nation with a history of human-rights abuses and voter fraud and intimidation. It is currently held together by fragile cooperation between President Robert Mugabe, who has long operated as a dictator, and the leader of his opposition, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Zimbabweans’ visit and investigation of American constitutionality is being bracketed by similar visits by groups from Afghanistan.

That program is underwritten by the State Department, organized by the University Center for Politics and by Relief International and hosted by the UVa Center for Politics. During their recent time here, a group of female Afghan government officials and legal scholars also visited the Rutherford Institute, an Albemarle County-based civil liberties organization.

We are struck by the similarities between the two efforts. Although officially unrelated, they have many commonalities. And they — along with simply the character of the American people — are producing similar conclusions from the visiting experts.

Neither program is attempting to enforce a replication of U.S.-style democracy, but rather to expose visitors to the American democratic experience and its founding principles and documents. The international representatives are well aware that their job is to draw their own conclusions and adapt the principles in ways that best suit their own countries.

Both groups of visitors have been impressed by America’s ability to accommodate diversity, both religious and political. Legal Society President Tinoziva Bere bluntly put it this way: He and his colleagues seek to learn “how people can be one nation under different persuasions and not kill each other” (“Zimbabwe lawyers in area to learn about Constitution,” The Daily Progress, July 7).

Both groups also have found deep meaning in their observations of, and interactions with, everyday Americans.

Merely the fact that these groups have traveled so far in search of a better understanding of democracy is a validation of the American experiment and its enduring influence. That they are indeed finding what they seek — along with new and unexpected insights — further confirms the value of America’s role as a beacon of freedom.

Not only is the nation an example to others who watch from afar, but its values and principles are so compelling that others are drawn here to study them intimately and directly.

We who live these values every day often forget the blessings of liberty and its power for elevating the human spirit. It is good for us from time to time to see our country as others see it, as a beacon of hope and progress.