Why can't we just all agree democracy rules?

Democracy is a Western concept.

False: read Amartya Sen's "Democracy as a Universal Value".

Democracy has its roots all over the place. Therefore, it's suitable for all peoples.

So, you tell me, aren't we right to "help" non-Western peoples reach out for democracy?

Mhm, if only it were that simple.

Sen rightly insists that all peoples are democracy-compatible, but that doesn't mean:

1) we have a right (or a duty) to impose it on them (unless you agree with Rudyard Kipling et al.)

2) especially not through military action (wage war to bring democracy: are you sure you don't see the paradox?),

3) especially (again) since it's not up to us to decide what type of democracy "they" need or should want, (yes, there are several ways of having a democracy: not just legitimate vs. illegitimate)

4) particularly in times when our own democratic regimes are embarked on a (should I say critical?) identity quest.

Westernisation comes with modernisation.

False: (open your eyes, then) read Fareed Zakaria's interview of Singaporean mentor Lee Kuan Yew ("Culture is Destiny").

A people can grow insanely wealthy without ever needing or wanting to Westernise.

If you're still not convinced, give his chance to Sam Huntington's "The West: Unique, Not Universal".

He adds that, not only do enriched non-Westerners not need or want Westernisation, but it's precisely their new-found wealth that allows them to rebuff it.

So then, non-Westerners will never have democracy.

False: they just won't necessarily have Western democracy. (Here, you could say -like Zakaria has- that democracy without Western liberalism is a recipe for disaster. But I wouldn't agree. What's a recipe for disaster is Western democracy from day to next without Western liberalism. And, even then, Daniel Drezner would object.)

Precisely because democracy has its roots all over the place, at one point in the future, non-Westerners will adopt some form or another of democracy. Only it probably won't be democracy as we think of it.

If you want a few examples of what it might look like, pick up Mark Leonard's What Does China Think? (Or you could even use your imagination and realize that not only is "our" democracy very different from the Athenian model we claim to withhold, but its conception has changed over and over just these last 100 years: from party-centered to candidate-centered, from indivisible to multicultural, etc.)

But haven't we already discovered democracy and its multiple facets? And haven't we already developed it in its most perfect form?

Well, my answer to you is:

1) I am very happy with "our" model of democracy.

2) But that doesn't mean I think we have the only one out there.

3) In fact, I'm pretty sure there are a lot of other ways of having a democracy.

4) And I think pretty soon some non-Western countries are going to start developing them.

5) And that's fine.

6) But, because I'm not sure I'll like them, I'd rather keep "our" democracy as far as I'm concerned.

7) So, because I don't want the Chinese or anyone else telling me there's something wrong with "my" democracy some fifty years from now,

8) I think we shouldn't be telling them or anyone else on the planet how to have their regime...

Then, does this mean I'm against democracy promotion altogether?

Not really. In fact, I think helping the Tibetans out or giving Otpor and other youths movements the means and techniques to overthrow Milosevic-like dictators is a smart thing to do.

Why? For three reasons:

1) it's efficient (far more than war),

2) it's cheap (far cheaper than war),

3) it's morally sound since we know these are people who want democracy (they come to us, not the other way around). [A good shrink would point out that I put "morally" and "sound" together.]

Here you could object -as Tom Carothers has- that fostering "colour revolutions" has had tremendously adverse consequences such as Russian President Putin's crackdowns on foreign NGOs in Moscow these past years.

True, but look who's frustrated where there have been "colour revolutions": Vladimir Putin.

Then, look who's frustrated where we've militarily "exported" democracy (i.e. Iraq): everyone or nearly so (and for a bunch of different reasons, I'll grant you that).

So, in the end, I'd rather frustrate a near-dictator than frustrate a nearly-unanimous people.

Photo credits: The School of Athens, Raphael, 1511.