The product has had much time to evolve: many years of researchand development, tests and retests and hundreds of years of practicalapplication in North America. But here is one inspector that wants to tellyou that what is being exported may be more Pinto than Mustang.

No, I’m not referring to cars, or any of the other millions of consumerproducts that are shipped abroad. I’m talking about Democracy, or the tiredNorth American version of democracy that the U.S. is flooding MiddleEastern markets with.

The first red flag might be that the chief proponent of the export wasbrought into power by the U.S. Supreme Court rather than by the Americanelectorate. But the problems are much deeper than the current U.S.administration, and the responsibility ultimately lies with us: thecitizens and voters in both Canada and the United States.

Statistics from IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance)paint a scary picture. In the United States, the vote/registrationpercentage (the number of votes divided by the number of names on thevoters’ register) has been in a steady decline since 1964. Where 95.83 per cent ofregistered voters showed up for Lyndon Johnson’s landslide victory in1964, only 67 per cent of registered voters participated in the Bush/Gore squeakerof 2000.

Here in Canada the numbers are just as compelling. Seventy per cent of the voting agepopulation participated in the crowning of Mackenzie King’s Liberals in 1945, andonly 54 per cent participated in the election that gave Jean Chrétien another kick at thecan in 2000.

A variety of ideas have been proposed to reinvigorate the electorate inCanada, ranging from switching to a system of proportional representationto compulsory voting, as is the case in Australia.

While structural changes can provide an incentive for a return to the polls,the solution ultimately lies in our conception of the role of the citizenin democracy, the idea of political participation being one of personalresponsibility rather than an act that needs any state incentive.

Long have we collectively complained about crooked politics andpoliticians, and used this as a justification to withdraw from politicalparticipation. It is exactly because of crooked politicians that we need tore-engage in the political process. Democracy requires a tacit commitmentfrom the citizenry to “guard the guardians.” The overused and seemingly self-contradictory statement “Freedom isn’t free” comes to mind, though we can give thanks that the workload is nowhere near that of a citizen in ancientAthens where political participation was a full-time job.

The first move might be to step back from the multitude of inane choicesbegging to be made in our everyday lives and to decide which choices areimportant and which are distractions. Are we mistaking the quantity ofchoice, consumer or otherwise, with quality of choice? Is choice abundancepreventing us from making those that really count? Should I care if myrazor has a fourth blade, or might the time I spend worrying about thatever-elusive close shave be better spent considering the problems with ourhealth care system?

Maybe the answer is as simple as increasing the focus on civics in primaryand secondary education, ensuring that the next generation of votersunderstands the importance of political participation in all its forms.

But for certain, if we are still planning on exporting this product, itshould come with an owner’s manual — one that makes it clear that everycitizen has a fundamental responsibility to be politically active, to seekopposing viewpoints in the media and not to take as gospel the ramblings ofpolitical spin doctors.

And while we are printing copies for Iraqi citizens, why not print an extra23 million copies for our own reference? After all, June 28 is just around thecorner.