Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential election has been greeted with extrordinary excitement and elation in the global media, including in the Indian media. It is not often that the outcome of an election in a foreign country gets covered in the Indian press with eight-column banner headlines. But America is special. And the electoral battle for the White House this year was made more special by the candidature of Obama, his high-spirited campaign, his incredible win over Hillary Clinton for the nomination of the Democratic Party, and, finally, his decisive triumph over John McCain on November 4.

One can understand why the Americans are celebrating. But why is the world so elated? The reason is simple. Obama’s victory is not only his own, not only of change-hungry Americans, but also of democracy and certain universal human values around the world. There are many things the world dislikes about America—its arrogance, its sheer power and its lack of wisdom about how to use its power. But there is also one thing the world likes about America: its democracy. If “change has come to America”, as Obama has so evocatively affirmed, it is because of the power of democracy, the power of an ordinary citizen’s ballot, the power of peaceful expression of a nation’s collective desire. It is not an ordinary feat for a 47-year-old first-time Senator to win the presidency of the most powerful nation on earth. America’s democracy has made it possible. Many surviving dictatorships and despotic regimes in the world must be quaking at the thought of the effect this peaceful change could have on their own democracy-loving people.

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