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 enlarge | Author: Fareed Zakaria
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  136 reviews
Sales Rank: 292829
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1
ASIN: B0007XAW76
Publication Date: March 31, 2003
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Showing reviews 6-10 of 136
 Democracy on the Autopsy Table May 26, 2008
Herbert L Calhoun (Falls Church, VA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
America's most brilliant columnist has struck again, this time with his sharp intellect used as a scalpel at the autopsy table dissecting American, and Western democracy. This book is his tutorial on freedom. It is refreshing and honest in a way we Americans are not use to. And had he plunged his knife in even an inch deeper, he easily could have been accused of "informal treason" (as everyone who criticizes American eventually is accused of).
It is impossible to miss his larger message: that democracy is more than just elections. It is really "elections plus." That is to say, it is elections plus an important package of assorted and related measures he refers to as "constitutional liberalism" -- such as freedom from tyranny, the rule of law, free speech, civil society, freedom of religion, etc. These "illiberal measures" that lay above and beyond democratic process itself, are the actual glue that makes democracies work. They depend completely on the moral strength of the people that devise them and carry them out.
And therein lies the rub, the fly in the ointment of all governments whether they be full fledged oligarchs or the best of Western democracies: Ideals do not automatically come into force by themselves; and governments are not inherently insulated against moral and political corruption, they require morally strong people to see them through. In short, ideals and governments, no matter how well designed, cannot be better than the people designated to carry them out.
The examples that Professor Zakaria chose in a rather backhanded way to make this point, could not have been better chosen: Hitler's democratic election in Germany and America's majority rule racial Apartheid which has lasted for over a century. Both came into being as a result of fair democratic elections by the majority of the respective nation's peoples. So too did Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Mugabe of Zimbabwe, for that matter.
Thus in the first part of the book, Zakaria makes a telling case that neither elections nor even democracies, are panaceas: It is moral legitimacy that is needed no matter what is the government's type. Yet, his prescriptions for fixing our problems seem to have gone off the rails. They ignored this important point at the subtext of his analysis, one of the most important forensic results of the autopsy. In his conclusions he falls back on the "mechanics of process" rather than rest his case on the strength of character of the people involved. The good professor thinks we need a better balance between capitalist regulations (which we now have too much of) and the regulations on our democracy (which he thinks has become entirely too free, as in free-wheeling). Sounding like one who has been recruited by the cult of neo-cons: he thinks the problem with American democracy is that we have gone too far in both cases, and that we now need to pull in our reins. Go figure?
But this solution does not fix the problem mentioned at the subtext of his analysis: the illegitimacy of creeping moral corruption, which sneaks in through the backdoor, and attacks all democracies whether large or small, East or West, like the locusts that descended on Egypt after the Jews fled to Israel.
It is corruption, not process that is the problem. No wonder people from the U.S. to Europe are losing faith in their democracies. Five stars.
Democracy without liberty May 7, 2008
H. V. Amavilah (Phoenix, AZ USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a fascinating book! Illiberal democracy (democracy without liberty) is spreading worldwide, and imperiling the future of freedom. The democratization process is multi-faceted: political, economic, cultural, what have you. The broad drivers behind it are technological progress, the growth of a wealthy middle class, the fall of alternative economic systems, and the Americanization of popular culture. Gunnar Myrdal predicted the convergence of political attitudes, while von Hayek foretold the fall of socialism and rise of the welfare state. What both philosophical thinkers missed is that the rise in democracy was to be without liberty. The rest of this book explains how and why that happened.
The explanation starts with a short history of liberty. This chapter is pure educational pleasure - for any reader. The road to democracy itself has undulated, yet infrastructural change is unstoppable, and along with it super-structural change. The exception is the Islamic world where the "monarchs are more liberal than societies over which they reign" (p. 120). However, too much of anything is dangerous, and paradoxically too much democracy has killed authority, resulting in illiberal democracy. It is under this new stage that dangers, like international terrorism, now lurk.
The book ends with a forward-looking chapter of the "way out". While the information the last chapter presents is valuable, the conclusions do not appear to follow easily from previous chapters. However, even with that flaw, this is a great book.
Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465
In the name of Freedom May 3, 2008
Frank S. Fang (Chicago)
Fareed Zakaria proves himself a brilliant thinker with his From Wealth to Power, The Future of Freedom, and The Post-American World. The Future of Freedom has the real foundation of his thinking: there is something wrong with Liberal Democracy and there is something right with Illiberal Democracy from the perspectives of social development and international politics.
Must Read February 7, 2008
Yann Ricard (Santa Barbara, CA USA)
When I read this book, I felt it was the most important book I had read since college, twenty five years ago. Two years later, I still feel that way. If you live in a democracy, this is a must read book.
How much democracy is too much? December 27, 2007
railmeat (Emeryville, CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
How much democracy is too much? Are elections really democracy? "the Future of Freedom" deals with these weighty issues and others related to how democracies should be governed. Fareed Zakaria is an editor at Newsweek, and his experience at a large circulation magazine shows in this books writing style. "The Future of Freedom" is well written and easy to read; it is obviously not intended as an academic work. It is lightly foot noted with end notes that provide reference to some of his sources.
The issues that "the Future of Freedom" addresses are critically important; however Zakaria's thesis is counter-intuitive, and new, at least to me. He shows examples, principally in east asia of undemocratic countries that are stable and are succeeding economically. He also shows examples of countries that have elections but are not stable and that do worse after democratic elections then before. The key seems to be professionally run institutions like an independent judiciary and central banks that are isolated from electoral politics.
One example of too much democracy causing problems is the state of California. We have given the people power through the referendum system and it has caused budgetary and administrative chaos. So is authoritarianism the answer? Obviously not, as Zakaria clearly shows.
He does offer solutions to how to these important complex issues should be managed. While these examples seem like good workable solutions to me, I do not expect to see them implemented anytime soon. His examples are of governing institutions run by appointed staff that are insulated from lobbying and the need to seek re-election.
I enjoyed reading "The Future of Freedom", it is a well written thoughtful discussion of important issues facing America and the world today. I hope it is widely read and discussed. I would like to see more books of this caliber.
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