Cheering for ‘democracy’

Rachman—who's normally pretty astute—assesses the emblematic events in Copenhagen as a blow to the U.S. program of 'spreading democracy'.

"As emerging global powers and developing nations, Brazil, India, South Africa and Turkey may often feel they have more in common with a rising China than with the democratic US." Extract from Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times

Although I share his sense that the Copenhagen events illustrated a watershed, I'm surprised by this pedestrian analysis from Rachman.

Even if 'spreading democracy' were still at the core of U.S. foreign policies under Obama (I doubt it), the idea that these emerging nations are somehow picking sides on the issue of 'democracy' is at best condescending. What, after all, does any of these countries need to learn from the USA about managing democracy? Not much, I'd say. Their democratic credentials have survived some of the most extreme challenges in the past half-century. What they have in common with China is something simpler and deeper than political philosophy: the desire for wealth.

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