When I first read Fareed Zakaria's The Future of Freedom, he seemed overly pessimistic about the chances of promoting the D-word around the globe. Three years on, his arguments look more persuasive. Events, dear boy, events... More in his latest Newsweek column:
The basic problem confronting the developing world today is not an absence of democracy but an absence of governance. From Iraq to the Palestinian territories to Nigeria to Haiti, this is the cancer that is eating away at the lives of people across the globe, plunging countries into chaos, putting citizens' lives and livelihoods at risk. It is what American foreign policy should be focused on. But the president's freedom agenda sees the entire complex process of political and economic development through one simple lens, which produces bad analysis and bad outcomes...
The administration now rewards democracies with aid. But why not have a more meaningful measure? Why not reward countries when they protect human rights, reduce corruption and increase the quality of governance?
"Our aid should be conditional on absolute standards," says [Larry] Diamond. "The European Union has forced change on countries that want to join it by demanding real progress on tough issues."
An administration that thinks of itself as tough has been almost romantic in its views of the world. There is good and evil out there. But there is also competence and incompetence...
Queer, I found him optimistic.
Posted by: The Lounsbury | Thursday, January 25, 2007 at 09:36 PM