Democracy and Autocracy Are Not Equivalent

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My website, It Does Not Add Up, has a very definite point of view.  Americans are blessed in many ways.  Democracy is the best form of government.  Free enterprise (capitalism) is the best form of economics.  We are both economically and militarily the strongest country in the world.  Our political and economic strength and freedom lead to steady social progress.  It is U.S. dominance that has created and preserved relative peace and stability in the world since the end of WWII.  It is critical for the current U.S.-led world order to continue.

But, nevertheless, we do have problems that we must be concerned about and take seriously.  We have internal political polarization, the worst in many years.  We have several autocratic rivals (China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea) who would like to weaken us.  As the analyst, Hal Brands, says in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, we have at times used amoral means to achieve our liberal goals.  Consider:

  • During WWII, we firebombed many cities in Germany and Japan, as well as using atomic bombs against Japan, to defeat the Axis powers. We allied with Josef Stalin’s communist Russia to help us defeat Germany.
  • During the Cold War, we allied with Mao Zedong’s communist China to isolate Russia, making it easier to overpower Russia, with our economic and military strength.
  • The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed to protect democratic Europe from autocratic Russia, has several somewhat autocratic (i.e. barely democratic) members, such as Hungary and Turkey.
  • In the Middle East, our democratic ally Israel is at war with Hamas (in Gaza), one of several proxies of terrorist, autocratic Iran. In this conflict, we have two autocratic allies, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.  Egypt, which borders Gaza, is likely to play a significant role in achieving peace, justice, and social progress for Palestinians in Gaza.
  • India, the most populous country in the world, is an imperfect democracy where the Hindus dominate other religious groups. Nevertheless, it has a huge common interest with the U.S. in resisting Chinese hegemony in Asia.

Conclusion.  In an imperfect world, the struggle for dominance between democracy and autocracy requires the U.S. to make compromises in working with imperfect democracies, or even other autocracies, to prevail against our main autocratic adversaries.

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2 thoughts on “Democracy and Autocracy Are Not Equivalent”

  1. Saint Augustine (5th Century, northern African theologian) observed the following: “Kingdoms without justice are mere robberies; but large empires are piracy writ large.”

    More recently, Amartya Sen became a Nobel Prize winner in 1998 based on his analysis of “social choice”, viz., elections within a Democracy.

    Unfortunately, the world wide occurrence of genocide since the end of WWII has continued unabated. 

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