Mob "Democracy"

In "The Bolivian Troubles, 'Race War', and the ICC" and "What's Ahead in Bolivia: Getting to Know Evo Morales", I noted the pernicious consequences for democracy when the state's monopoly on the legitimate use of violence is undermined. So-called "human rights" organizations, by putting on the same plane the use of force by state organs and violence committed by non-state actors - or even, which is more typical, denouncing the former far more strenuously than the latter - encourage this development and the International Criminal Court (ICC) represents its apotheosis.

Friday's storming of Kyrgyz government headquarters provides further evidence. In its weekend edition (18-19 June), the Neue Züricher Zeitung comments:

To put it somewhat provocatively, the astonishingly quick victory of the protest campaign against the Akayev regime in March has led to a situation in Kyrgyzstan in which whoever has enough money rounds up a mob as they like and sends it into the street. Since a real transformation of Kyrgyz political institutions has not yet even begun..., the clashes on Friday are not likely to be the last.