Comments on Observing Japan: Changing terms

I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with the e...

2007-10-18T21:03:04.945+09:00

I'm not saying that I necessarily agree with the examples provided by The Economist — although I think free can be quantified more than democracy can. (There's a reason, after all, that Freedom House labels countries as "free" or "unfree," not democratic or undemocratic.)

The problem is that democracy is simply a process, while these terms are qualitative factors. Democracy can be a buttress for these other factors, or it can hinder or undermine them. And so to promote "democracy" plain and simple doesn't necessarily make anything better.

Of course, one result of substituting other terms for democracy is that it would immediately make clear how difficult it is for governments to shape domestic institutions in other countries, hopefully prompting a reassessment that scales back efforts to areas in which outside help actually can achieve something.

Wait, "democracy" is overused and worn to the poin...

2007-10-18T15:46:00.000+09:00

Wait, "democracy" is overused and worn to the point of uselessness, but "free" isn't? One need only imagine a government calling for the expansion of freedom once to see that it's even less measurable and specific than "democracy."

"Law-governed" sounds good, but that would include even more countries than "democracy," which is counter to the point in terms of classification, analysis, and explanation.

Maybe there should be come kind of certification, as in "governed by laws tested against a situation in which rulers could have changed them to suit their own needs, but didn't and the rule of law prevailed and this appears to be a matter of course rather than an anomaly."

The trouble with any concise explanation is that it is going to be vague and, in this case, come to be meaningless a few months after the first existing government uses it.

Although the more realistic sense of democracy is ...

2007-10-14T06:40:00.000+09:00

Although the more realistic sense of democracy is welcome in many ways, it is too early to pronounce the death of democracy promotion. Democracy promotion by force as in Iraq is certainly approaching eclipse but democracy promotion as for example in Myanmar and perhaps Russia shows it is far from a dead issue.