Whuddup with "democracy" and "freedom" in the world?

Given my own "knee-jerk-liberal" proclivities, it might have seemed unlikely that I would find deeply resonant the views of a Hoover Institution fellow and former senior adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.  Nonetheless, I found very captivating the commentary of Larry Diamond, author of, The Spirit of Democracy, in a Carnegie Council event broadcast on CSpan's BookTV.

The event was a conversation between Larry Diamond and Arch Puddington, the Director of Research at Freedom House, and was moderated by Freedom House Executive Director, Jennifer Windsor (formerly, the Deputy Assistant Administrator and Director of the Center for Democracy and Governance at the U.S. Agency for International Development, under Bill Clinton).  The conversation provided a very good and generally honest examination -- though, cursory -- kinda like just checking the pulse -- of the state of "democracy" and "freedom" in our world, today.  Most welcome, the back and forth included some of the very real problems afflicting democracy right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. (money in politics; corruption; polling problems; "rule of law" issues; and "the constellation of issues that you could sum up by Guantanamo, the Patriot Act, renditions, and the like.")

Recommended! A transcript of the event, "Freedom in Retreat," is available, here.

Dig deeper: latest Freedom in the World Survey; IHT review of, The Spirit of Democracy, the Struggle to Build Free Societies, by Larry Diamond

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At one point in the conversation, Jennifer Windsor alluded to "the real purpose" behind the US/British invasion and occupation of Iraq.  None of the participants spelled this out any further, however.  Still, I wonder what their conclusions are on this, and I am writing to both Windsor and Diamond to ask.  Will update this post if I hear back from them.

•  Thanks for the links n/t

  by Flywheel on Sun Feb 17, 2008 at 11:25:33 PM PDT