What Democracy Does

The Iraq elections were local ones, and so the core questions of how this country can get a functional national government were not enter-stage and the usual caution is necessary in interpreting any single event in Iraq. Nonetheless, this paradigm will surely save the country, if it can spread:

Sheik Jabbar, 55, who also ran in the election but lost, said he believed that [secular and competent] Mr. Habboubi was himself surprised by how well he did. “The influence of the religious parties has been reduced,” Sheik Jabbar said. “People looked at the terrible conditions and decided, ‘They have not done anything for me, so why should I vote for them?'" ...

The job, as Mr. Abbas sees it, is getting basic services working, the streets cleaned, the roads paved and bridges built. “Habboubi, he will stop in his own car and pick up trash,” he said.

If the debate in Iraq moves from centuries old religious conflict toward who can pick up trash more efficiently, it's a huge gain. Of course, caution is warranted: 140,000 US troops are still there; sectarian tensions still exist; we have no idea what will happen when occupying forces withdraw. But no one can fail to be heartened by what we've just seen.