The Future of Freedom

I just finished Fareed Zakaria’s The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. It’s unfortunate that President Bush isn’t a reader, or I would recommend it to him as it is a terrific and simply written little book. Had he read it before attacking Iraq and prior to making the spreading of democracy into every Muslim village and town his life's work, he might well be the most popular man in the country instead of…well you know.

The author, highly qualified academically and well respected as a journalist and TV commentator, writes so clearly, directly and simply that it’s hard to realize that he’s delving into highly technical questions of government and political philosophy, but he is - and brilliantly.

My friend, Frank Lewis, called me up from wherever over the edge of the flat earth it is that he resides and insisted I read this book immediately. While I always question authority and am skeptical of virtually everything that my buddies profess, the tone of the poor man’s voice was such that I went to the library and checked it out. Amazingly, I went through the book in only a couple of sessions; it’s that intriguing.

The most basic point of the book is that most people, including rather sophisticated members of society and practitioners of government confuse democracy with liberty. Democracy is far more complex than simply a very wide franchise in selecting who will run a government but that nearly universal suffrage is the most widely recognized element of the term. As we look about, the flaws in this view are obvious; many totalitarian states, including until very recently, Iraq, were run by elected strong men, hardly the stuff of our views on democracy. On the other hand, some notoriously undemocratic nations provide their citizens with significant freedom or `liberty’ to pursue their interests; China permits almost unfettered economic opportunity to business operators, and if they keep their noses out of politics, they can prosper greatly.

A second theme is that certain environments are better incubators for democracy and liberty than others. Mr. Zakaria makes a strong case that a minimum per capita income level is indicative of the potential for a middle class which will work for liberty as perhaps the most important element. But he makes an exception for nations whose wealth tends to result from commodities. These nations, such as Saudi Arabia, are not dependent on their citizens for taxes, and the middle class – usually small and weak – has little incentive for calling the government on bad decisions since they’re not paying their hard earned money to fund them.

The author goes on to analyze the great exception to his thesis, Islam. His point is that much of the Muslim world – and most especially the Arab corner of it that has the world’s great commodity, oil – poses the most difficult nut for liberty and democracy to crack. Among his points quite naturally are that Islam has not had anything like the renaissance, enlightenment or reformation that provided the residents of Christian nations with the opportunity to begin the process of pushing back against their clergy and to begin the building of capitalism and liberty.

You can see where this is heading; Iraq would make a very poor candidate for the creation of a liberty laden democracy. Sadly, this brilliant analysis was written before the invasion of Iraq, and anyone who read prior to the war would have been very nervous about the likely outcome of such an adventure. My guess is that the president didn’t have this on his reading list.

This book provides one of the easiest explanations of the widening problems of democracy, including here at home, and it provides an open window into the thinking of the founders, especially Madison and Hamilton, that would be very useful to those not into the Federalist Papers.

Since Mr. Zakaria makes his most important point about me – well maybe not personally but I’m sure that he had me in mind – I highly recommend this book to my readers. He writes that initially blogs were…"hailed as the killer of the traditional media. In fact (they have) become something quite different. Far from replacing newspapers and magazines, the best blogs – and the best are very clever – have become guides to them, pointing out unusual sources and commenting on familiar ones. They have become new mediators for the informed public. Although the creators of blogs think of themselves as radical democrats, they are in fact a new Tocquesvillean elite.” Thanks Fareed; I knew that and now my readers can see how valuable I am to them.

All kidding aside, this is a great read, and I give my highest recommendation.

Blog on!

Wild Bill