At 05:05 PM 10/30/2002 -0600, you wrote:
Following a link from a link that Dan (I think) posted, I ran across an article from 1997 that seems to apply to a few recent threads. The article is, "Was Democracy Just a Moment" by Robert Kaplan.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97dec/democ.htm
The article is very long, but well worth the read. Here are three longish excerpts that apply to recent threads about democracy and world government and issues involved in nation-building in Iraq.
Excerpt #1:
Because both a middle class and civil institutions
are required for successful democracy, democratic
Russia, which inherited neither from the Soviet
regime, remains violent, unstable, and miserably
poor despite its 99 percent literacy rate. Under
its authoritarian system China has dramatically
improved the quality of life for hundreds of
millions of its people. My point, hard as it may
be for Americans to accept, is that Russia may be
failing in part because it is a democracy and
China may be succeeding in part because it is not.
Reggie Bautista
In 97-98 this may have been true about Russia, but isn't Russia much better now? The hostage debacle isn't a good example, but I think recently Russia is starting to work. It hasn't failed.
In the meantime, China has stayed the same, or at least not improved.
Kevin T.
Where's the G-man to set us straight?
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