Muravchik disproves his own argument for spreading democracy

After assuring his readers at Opinion Journal that democracy must lead to a reduction of fanaticism and terror, Joshua Muravchik writes:

A foreign policy that makes freedom a touchstone will of course entail some self-contradictions and hypocrisies and doubts about our sincerity. The same was true when President Carter elevated human rights to a new prominence. Nonetheless, in doing so he changed the world for the better and advanced America’s interests. It was embarrassing when President Carter fawned over the Shah of Iran and the Communist dictators of Poland, Romania and the USSR. But where are those men now, or the governments they headed?

Muravchik boasts of the fact that Carter’s human-rights campaign helped lead to the fall of the Shah. But, of course, the Shah’s regime was replaced by the first modern fundamentalist jihadist state. This little historical fact, which Muravchik seems to have overlooked, directly disproves his assertion that democratizing reforms and the resulting dismantling of authoritarian governments must lead to freer and less violent regimes.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 25, 2005 05:13 PM | Send