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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (100037)	6/3/2003 3:47:40 PM
From: carranza2	Respond to of 281500

C2, India has been democratic for decades and they don't have much in the way of "economic conditions". Actually, it might be easier to get democracy going in poor places because there's nothing for the boss tribe to steal. Zakaria deals with the India issue. As a native, he is personally familiar with it. Indian democracy is, in his view, falling apart. He makes a compelling argument, the specifics of which I cannot recall. The less there is for the boss clan to steal, the more brutal things will be. The more brutal things are, the less chance that democracy will take up life. Zakaria makes a distinction between democracy and constitutional liberalism like that practiced in W. Europe, America, the UK, etc., and plain "democracy" as practiced in Mexico before Fox, Iran where Saddam got 100% of the votes, Pakistan, and other states where elections are held but where freedom does not prevail. It's an important distinction since constitutional liberalism and its accoutrements such as free markets, rule of law, freedom of religion and expression, and all the other freedoms we take for granted do not necessarily go hand in hand with simple democratic voting. Zakaria's book is important and clear-eyed. Needs to be read by all who post here.