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hyperbola6 months ago

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I am always sceptical that "top-down" changes initiated/propagated by foreigners have ANY useful influence in a country. Ban meeting with the Junta is NOT how countries change, and neither is foreign pressure/interference.

Democracies are very fragile creatures that grow and evolve slowly and are easily destroyed by foreign interference and/or internal corruption (viz the US at present). They have real roots ONLY when they are the desire of the majority of the native population, INCLUDING its elite, and that majority views a democratic system as best for its own interests. Long periods of "calm" are necessary for democracies to germinate and grow strong - which is why foreign pressure is almost always counterproductive.

I always remember the words of a Ugandan Foreign Minister after their civil war. To paraphrase:

"Thank god no one was interested - it would have been much bloodier".

I guess maybe you speak German Gama? Here is part of an excellent interview with Helmudt Schmidt, who has impeccable democratic credentials and even today at age 91 (and married to his first wife for 67 years!) makes most current politicians look like bumbling amateurs (think Tony Blair for example). I link it because he addresses the question of whether "western-style" democracy is the best system for Asia at present (he says maybe no, and bases his analysis on German experience).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03vAA59-6bI=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Hcra8RKu58=related

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  gamahuche6 months ago
  
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  I DON'T speak German, hyperbola..
  It wasn't kosher when I was a toddler in Nazi occupied Bohemia..
  But thanks for your comment and I agree with you entirely about Blair - but what did he care when he was personally making out like a bandit!?
  
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    hyperbola6 months ago
    
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    OK. The interview was spectacular!
    
    To augment a little bit what I was trying to say, the countries I know that have made the most convincing conversions to democracy (at times still fragile and evolving) are those where the population and its elite became convinced that an autocratic system was a failure and there was a "peaceful" conversion. These "conversions" are not always successful, especially if the autoctonous population is not itself fervently supportive of democracy or internal/external "powers" can manipulate desire for change for their own benefit.
    
    I think of parts of eastern Europe (I best know east Germany), but also of Spain. Maybe the most decisive contribution that the Germans made to a peaceful transition in Spain was the decision of German conservatives (especially Helmut Kohl) to quietly tell, behind the scenes, the "right-wing" in Spain to cool it during the transition and especially during the attempted coup. Much more effective than public interference.
    
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