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April 19, 2006
What Do Americans Think Of The Democratic Peace?
The isolationists libertarian website LewRockwell.com has reported on an important survey, "Public Skeptical About Bush's Democracy Crusade" (here). Colleague comments on it below:
Regarding the survey on promoting democracy, one interesting finding was the fairly straightforward view (point 1) that most Americans don't favor "promoting democracy with military force" -- of course not! Americans are so imbued with the democratic culture of bargaining, negotiating, and compromise, that reverting to the use of force for almost any purpose except clear self-defense is anathema.This meshes with the view that going to war wasn't a good enough reason to do the Iraq war (point 2) -- but then who said that was the main reason? This is a skewed question!
A disturbing finding (point 3) was that although a very large majority feels that democracy is the best form of government, there is less confidence (only 50%) that it is best for all countries. This does seem to mesh with the finding (point 8) that Americans don't think the US democracy is perfect . . . . I wish the survey had asked "If you don't believe that democracy is the best form of government for any particular country, what form of government DO you feel is best for that country. . . and why?"
(Continued here)
Posted by Rudy at April 19, 2006 10:37 PM
