Shouldn't democratic change be left entirely with the people of the respective country?
Yes and no. Local ownership is the decisive factor for the success of democratic reforms. However, as Vaclav Havel, Former President of the Czech Republic and one of the key figures of the democratic dissidence against the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia once said: "from my own experience, I know how enormously important it is for those who in one way or another are fighting for human rights or against authoritarian regimes to receive assistance from the democratic world. This is not just about material aid, although that is certainly also important, but assistance of an intellectual nature and the exchange of experiences as well as subsequent political and media support".
Citizens and the domestic political and social actors must be the drivers of democratic change for democracy to prosper. However, the path to democratization is far from straightforward. Instead, it is a difficult process full of setbacks and complex political and social tradeoffs; where institutional and political reforms interact with a changing social and economic environment; where rapid change can come to a sudden halt or inspiring reforms can be drastically reversed if not supported by the domestic actors.
The international community can be an important partner in supporting democratic change by aligning their supporting measures to locally driven agendas: supporting domestic actors and enhancing their capacity to operate their reforms plans; facilitating the access to knowledge and international best practice; or offering incentives that can contribute to consensus building and advancing the legitimacy of the new institutions. But also, by increasing the consistency between our moral vision and our alignment with those who fight for democracy and our actions in the international realm.