Post on The Rise of Illiberal Democracy

Zakaria's article was extremely interesting and I think that he has it right. Democracy can do a lot for different people and nations around the world, but only if the liberal democracy is lending to constitutional liberalism, the protection of basic human rights. If not, then democracy can lead to disasters. For instance, since majority wins, a completely undemocratic leader could possibly obtain power. Hitler, one of the most infamous leaders in the 20th century, was elected into office by a majority vote and obviously he did nothing to support general civil rights unless it fit his personal agenda. Moving along to the issue of ethnic conflict I thought the 1960's scholars who concluded that democracies just didn't work in areas of intense ethnic preferences was astonishing. It seems egocentric to think that the U.S. can do it with its mixing of cultures and yet other areas can't. However, there lies the big question of how do you compromise on national religion or social conduct according to certain cultures? Can any one culture truly win when all people think their culture is right? Finally I thought it was great that Zakaria addressed the U.S. and its foreign relations and how a bit of humility is needed. When the U.S. runs around trying to impose democracies in countries, such as China, Guatemala, sometimes things go awry and civil wars break out. As long as civil rights are being upheld, and this does require a lot of trust in a leader, then that is a good first step. If, however, the U.S. does want to impose constitutions on countries- constitutions that make sense for that particular nation-then that country must be present and consenting for even today Japan is trying to change their constitution that was written by the U.S.