From Christian Caryl:
Larry Diamond, one of America’s leading scholars on global democracy, brought it up in a rousing speech at a recent conference here in Washington. He noted, with admirable frankness, that “we can’t be credible and effective in promoting democracy abroad if we don’t reform and improve its functioning at home.” He used to make this point, he said, as one of his last pieces of advice to Americans who aim to offer assistance to would-be democrats abroad. Now, he said, “it needs to be the first.” He quoted the old Greek proverb: “Physician, heal thyself.”
He’s not the only one. Just about everyone you meet in the “democracy bureaucracy” these days says the same. There’s a general awareness that democracy is experiencing dark times around the world, and that the attraction of Western models is waning fueled also by Europe’s continuing financial woes and political inertia….
REad more at The Beacon Dims.