The Long Spring

The Arab Spring is not over. These seasons don't run their course on a yearly calendar.

The urges for something other that autocrats or mullahs to run their lives inspired the largely failed Arab Spring of 2011. Those longings for democracy failed, in part, because we failed to teach them how democracy works.

Voting alone is not democracy. Democracy requires rule of law so democracy isn't just the means to legitimize the tyranny of the majority over the minority.

Despite the earlier failures, in Algeria and Sudan, the longings for something better than they have for governance are reappearing in an echo of the Arab Spring. That's good.

Will Sudanese soldiers help the people and will Algerian officers really tackle corruption?

These efforts may fail or remain isolated. And Sudan in particular seems like poor ground to sow democracy. With war and genocide such a large part of their recent history, peace at the price of a different dictatorship might seem like a good bargain. But who knows?

Nonetheless they are important milestones on the road to democracy. The Arab world needs time. Even eastern European democracy is fragile enough to see backsliding. Everybody needs time and nobody is incapable of democracy.

UPDATE: Is Algeria on the road to democracy or civil war?

Or just the same old system after a round of musical chairs among the elites, I suppose.