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

To: Dayuhan who wrote (109174)	8/1/2003 8:14:57 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 281500

This is not a commentary upon our current situation, but upon the principle of world federation in general, humorously expressed. As far as democracies in the Third World go, those countries that claim the name vary quite a bit on issues like press freedom and other civil liberties, and frequently enough have large constituencies threatening the stability of the state that must be placated, like Islamicists. A democracy has to be stable and reliable in civil liberties before it has much of a claim on our trust. But even someplace that is conceded to have a well- functioning liberal democracy may be so alienated from our interests and point of view that the requisite underlying consensus permitting political federation is lacking. This, from Freedom House, is interesting: According to the annual survey, 89 countries [out of 192] are now Free, up from 43 in 1972. Their inhabitants enjoy a broad range of rights. Fifty-five countries are considered Partly Free, an increase from 38 in 1972. Political rights and civil liberties are more limited in these countries, in which corruption, dominant ruling parties, and, in some cases, ethnic or religious strife are often the norm. The survey finds that 48 countries fall into the Not Free category, down sharply from 69 in 1972. Inhabitants of these countries are denied basic political rights and civil liberties. "The dramatic increase in the number of Free countries points to the broad and growing appeal of democracy among the world's many peoples and cultures," said Freedom House co-Vice Chairman Mark Palmer. "This underscores the universality of democracy and its basic principles, including freedom of speech, religion, and thought," he said. Thirty years ago, 1.3 billion people (35 percent of the world's population) lived in Free countries. Today, that total stands at 2.7 billion people (44 percent). At the same time, the number of people living in Not Free countries has moved from 1.8 billion people to 2.2 billion people. This, however, represents a proportional decline of people living under Not Free systems, from 47 percent in 1972 to 35 percent today. Of the 2.2 billion people who are considered Not Free, almost 60 percent, or 1.28 billion, live in the People's Republic of China. Over the last 30 years, freedom's progress has been most dramatic in Latin America, the Asia-Pacific region, and Central and Eastern Europe. Modest progress has also been registered in Africa. The Middle East and many majority Islamic countries have seen stagnation in terms of overall levels of freedom in the last three decades. Despite the lack of progress in large parts of the Islamic world, especially its Arabic core, the survey analysis finds no inexorable link between Islam and political repression. Indeed, it shows that the majority of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims lives under democratically elected governments, in countries like Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Turkey. The overall lack of progress on democratic reform within specific Muslim countries can be attributed to high degrees of military influence, the persistence of monarchies and personal authoritarianism, and the influence of radical ideologies such as Baathism and jihadist Islamism. All have helped give birth to tyrannical regimes and violent movements in the region. Among the study's principal findings: After a successful transition from a United Nations mandate, East Timor became the world's newest democracy in 2002. · There are 121 electoral democracies in the world today, out of 192 states (63 percent). In 1987, 66 countries were electoral democracies out of a total of 167 (40 percent). However, only 89 of today's 121 electoral democracies have an environment in which there is broad respect for human rights and stable rule of law. The remaining democracies fail to provide systematic protection for all basic civil liberties. freedomhouse.org