On Aug 30, 2006, at 12:31 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> I've never said that people in the Middle East do not want democracy.
> The common sense in America has us conflate democracy with liberalism,
> but these are not the same thing, and the habit of conflation makes us
> fail to accept other peoples' democracy when they don't adopt
> liberalism as well as democracy. Therefore, it's crucial for us to
> develop a clear conceptual distinction between liberalism and
> democracy, so when we see illiberal democracy, we can see democracy,
> rather than merely lack of liberalism and pass if off as lack of
> democracy.
What do you mean by "liberalism"? Freedom of speech and assembly, contested elections, etc.? Free-market capitalism?
Doug