The deaths of commuters in South Africa and of villagers and Russian conscripts in Chechnya serve to remind us that the worlds newest democracies are still plagued by their pre democratic past. There has been a dangerous tendency to wishful thinking, to accepting initial signs of reform as the fulfilment of aspirations.
The pictures from South Africa showed human bodies swathed in sheets following an operation against rail fare dodgers in which electric cattle prods were used. Footage of the aftermath in which white policemen fired baton rounds at black demonstrators were all too reminiscent of scenes from South Africa's apartheid era. The use of devices designed to control cattle, in an attempt to regulate the flow of people at the railway station in Tembisa, near Johannesburg, demonstrated that while the song of apartheid has ended, the melody lingers on.
President Mandela has promised a full inquiry into the deaths. While necessary, this investigation is unlikely fully to change the mind set of those responsible. South Africa remains a divided society despite its acceptance of the democratic principle. Not enough time has elapsed for a convergence of lifestyles and outlooks to have taken place. The advent of democracy has, as yet, been unable to change an out look engendered by unbridled and artificially inseminated inequality.
At another pole a fragile attempt at democracy is under threat. President Yeltsin's recent victory in Russia's presidential elections has led to complacency of a similar nature. His victory was assured by a promise to end the war in Chechnya and the drafting into his camp of the leading anti crime campaigner, General Alexander Lebed.
Four weeks after Russia's long suffering population gave Mr Yeltsin a qualified vote of confidence, the Chechen war has resumed with extra ferocity and the initial powers given to General Lebed have been seriously circumscribed. A major economic crisis is looming in Russia's far east as tens of thousands of miners halt energy production to demand payment for work already done, a promise of which had persuaded them to support Mr Yeltsin.
In South Africa, the demands for minimal conditions such as basic housing requirements and the supply of water, have not been met and, judging by the most recent incident, neither have simple demands by the majority community to be treated in a dignified human manner.
Russians and South Africans expected a great deal from the democracy they sought. Stopping short of the ideal, through inefficiency in South Africa, because of corruption in the Kremlin, may lead to an antipathy towards perceived western democracy in countries where the fire of hope has been prematurely kindled. The patent complacency of first world countries could yet lead to an undermining of democracy on the world stage.