Deferring Democracy: Promoting Openness in Authoritarian Regimes

ISBN-13: 9780815717010 / Angielski / Miękka / 2000 / 152 str.

Catharin E. Dalpino

Opis

The democratic surge in the past twenty years has led many Americans to assume that all societies are, or should be, making progress toward becoming practicing democracies. Many in the United States therefore approach countries such as China, Iran, and Indonesia with impatience and bewilderment. These seemingly intransigent hold-outs are the subject of intense policy debates, not least because they also play important roles in U.S. security and economic policy. This book takes a fresh look at the prospects for political change in these countries and argues that immediate opportunities exist to advance political liberalization, with the possibility that democratization will follow in the mid to long-term. But to encourage these trends, the United States must de-emphasize short-term human rights concerns in favor of gradual democratization, develop new assistance strategies to enlarge political space, and promote sub-regional rather than global frameworks.