The Right Kind of Democracy

Fareed Zakaria is not anti-democracy, but takes a stance that initially seems controversial. That is that unfettered democracy is counter-productive. Although the United States has fared considerably better with its system of government, Zakaria argues, America is in many ways choking itself.

In Chapter 5, Too Much of a Good Thing, the author references the so-called Sunshine Laws, which require elected officials to publicize all hearings in which new legislation is being enacted. While this does give constituents greater input, it also stymies lawmakers, who are forced to endure the threats and entreaties of lobbyists and special interest groups. Often legislators cave in to the pressure, passing laws that are actually harmful to the majority. Another thorny issue that Zakaria tackles is legislation by plebiscite, which results in major setbacks as countless groups clamor for their respective agendas. The counter to this conundrum is not one for which Zakaria personally takes credit: give politicians leeway to pass laws that they feel are in the public's best interests. This is, after all, why they are elected in the first place.

Although much of The Future of Freedom deals with political and social trends in this country, the book also explores the paths other nations have taken or may take, as evidenced by the subtitle Illiberal Democracy At Home And Abroad. By "illiberal" democracy Zakaria means a country that ostensibly has free elections, but remains or becomes repressive, corrupt or intolerant. As examples Zakaria gives Russia, Belarus and Venezuela, among others. And he explores the failed efforts of the United States to transplant democracy to nations such as Haiti, and bluntly states in the book's afterword:

[The Bush administration] thoughtlessly engineered a political and social revolution as intense as the French or Iranian ones and them seemed surprised that Iraq could not digest it happily, peaceably and quickly. . .We gave them a civil war (266).

However, Zakaria is not opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq -a country with no direct connection to the 9/11 attacks and which to date has yielded no evidence weapons of mass destruction- only the way in which we handled it.

What may make some readers bristle is Zakaria's contention that some countries are simply not ready for democracy, and imposing our views on them will likely do more harm than good. Countries like China and Russia, he argues, are arguably able to make decisions that are good for the nation as a whole precisely because they do not have to worry about the public's approval. Whether or not these nations will ultimately embrace a more tolerant ideology is unclear.

In Chapter 4 Zakaria deals with radical Islam, and proposes that the root of the problem is not the religion per se, as many of Islam's detractors maintain, but rather the issue is endemic to the Middle East. While avoiding racist stereotypes, Zakaria points to repressive regimes and fat, decadent oligarchs as the major contributors to strife in this region. Refuting the assertion that only poor and disenfranchised young Muslims veer towards terrorism, he singles out Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, who bucked this supposed trend. He further asserts that Israel is not the source either, stating that for centuries Jews lived peacefully in Muslim countries. However, other sources -such as Robert Spencer's 2005 The Politically Incorrect Guide ™ to Islam (And The Crusades)- claim that under Islamic regimes, Jews were treated as second-class citizens, an argument which Zakaria does not address. And his examples of bin Laden and Zawahiri notwithstanding, he omits mentioning that most suicide bombers, whom the upper echelons recruit, are poor and disenfranchised.

If The Future of Freedom is accurate, the book implies that the United States is an anomaly in some respects. For example, Zakaria maintains that countries with abundant natural resources are generally inhospitable towards democracy. He naturally mentions the African nations, mired in totalitarianism and civil war. Yet America has no dearth of resources, and is a functional, if imperfect, democracy.

Zakaria rightly equates a country's political success -insofar as harboring a liberal democracy is concerned- with its economic success. Poverty breeds discontent and tyranny. He ends by asserting that a leader dedicated to eradicating the social ills that perpetuate the status quo in much of the world should inspire confidence and cooperation in this noble goal.

First published in 2003 by W.W. Norton & Company, and then again in 2007 with a new afterword, The Future of Freedom at 300 pages is a surprisingly easy book to digest, employing language that is erudite without being arrogant. Zakaria is a fair if sometimes harsh critic of the established world order, but by no means comes across as a pessimist. Still timely, The Future of Freedom is a worthwhile read.