Western foreign policy, when push comes to shove: Democracy sacrificed for Stability?

[al Roumi]

Exactly what I said no?

Yeah but the difference is that you say Egypt has a crap democracy because Egyptian people/society can't handle/don't want democracy.

I think we have to recognise that societies look different after a period of a particular kind of rule, be it capitalist, democracy, communist, dictatorship etc. If you were to look at France prior to 1780, would you think it was suitable for democratic rule?

Also, what do you think would make a country suitable for democratic rule? Because from the sound of what you are saying, it sounds like a country would have to already be a democracy...

[Fragony]

Yeah but the difference is that you say Egypt has a crap democracy because Egyptian people/society can't handle/don't want democracy.

I think we have to recognise that societies look different after a period of a particular kind of rule, be it capitalist, democracy, communist, dictatorship etc. If you were to look at France prior to 1780, would you think it was suitable for democratic rule?

Also, what do you think would make a country suitable for democratic rule? Because from the sound of what you are saying, it sounds like a country would have to already be a democracy...

No I said that it's complex, it is, we simply can't expect the same from a devided people, here we fought things out and there we cut things up, look at Africa's borders. All African nations are are a joke, they are western inventions. Can we at least be honost about that

[al Roumi]

No I said that it's complex, it is, we simply can't expect the same from a devided people, here we fought things out and there we cut things up, look at Africa's borders. All African nations are are a joke, they are western inventions. Can we at least be honost about that

Certainly, you are right on all counts, but I don't know if in practice these issues are more of a handicap than a death knell.

For example, who would have thought in the 1970s that Spain's democracy would stick after 40 years of dictatorship?

Paul Collier's analysis of democracies in developping countries is interesting, even if his recomendations are a bit fruity, not to mention interventionalist!