Democracy Promotion Topic Open Thread
Gordon Stables authored this paper suggesting a potential topic related to the enhancement of US democracy promotion efforts.
CEDA Topic Blog
CEDA Topic: Democracy Promotion Topic Open Thread
I think this topic is a relatively deep topic that warrants discussion. We very rarily talk about democracy as if it is a good thing (speaking as a kritik hack), and i think a in depth discussion into the notion of human rights and democracy would be good to have. Especially since we live in a "democracy", I think it is our duty as future leaders to truly understand the concept of democracy and human rights, the disadvantages to these ideas, and finally how we can bring these ideas into fruition, What this world needs is freedom for all people, and I think a discussion on how to bring this about would make truly great leaders for the future of this country and the world.
I appreciate Gordon's work on this topic area. I'm highly interested in the list of potential nations and the idea of demo promo as a potential mechanism.
My question concerns the directionality of the resolution. I understand that the paper calls for an increase/enhancement, but then the descriptions of demo promo tools/mechansims suggest that demo promo can be either hard line/punishing actions (e.g., sanctions/withdrawal aid/military intervention) or softline/engagement actions (e.g., trade benefits, demo aid).
Given this bidirectional nature of the mechanism, I'm unclear as to the exact direction of the topic so far.
I think the community should have an idea whether the topic will lean hardline or softline before they vote on the topic.
I just read Kelly's post and I don't disagree that further discussion of this item would be helpful.
My view is that this will come down to a limits question (ie how broad do we want the topical action to include) instead of a directionality question.
One of the central tenets that the literature can and should support is that supporting democracy is not usually all that friendly to the host nation. The decision is usually less about providing economic aid to or cutting off aid to the government. We may need to be clearer in the wording (such as demo promo to the state vs nation vs govt), but the approach is usually a broad range of actions designed to force the current government to further democratize. I do believe that it could offer a different type of topic, but I am open to discussion.
Gordon