So what?
Reader comment on item: The Freedom Crusade, Revisited: A Symposium
in response to reader comment: America is not a "Democracy"

Submitted by Alain Jean-Mairet (Switzerland), Jan 13, 2006 at 03:17

Indeed, democratic votes often lead to patent errors (what Daniel Pipes recognizes quite clearly, pointing out that votes in the ME are bringing Islamists on stage). But this here is about something else. What Daniel Pipes is talking about is the base on which to build a workable system – call it a Constitutional Republic, that's alright; here in Switzerland, for example, we call it Direct Democracy and it is doing the job quite well, too.

The point is that the system itself cannot be imposed on a population unless it just was totally defeated (Japan, Germany). Otherwise, you have to promote not a system, but the means to create the system which will be workable at the time and place considered – based on democratic values (civil society, rule of law, freedom of speech, private property, and so on) AND on the local specifics (history, traditions). And that is trickier and takes more time. But that's the way.
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