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AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

How can America really promote democracy abroad? One lesson of the Arab Spring: We're putting billions of dollars into efforts that may not help. Of all the authoritarian Arab states researchers studied, only one now meets the standards of electoral democracy.
The foreign policy driven by this belief is known as "democracy promotion," and has long been an explicit goal of Western governments. At least since the 1950s, institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have aimed to promote democratic values in the economic and political life of developing countries. The favored method is a top-down approach: Democracy-promotion groups funnel money to nascent political parties and help train people to run the institutions considered central to democracy, from elections commissions to associations for judges and lawyers. Western advisers push democratic ideas and try to strengthen local civic organizations. Then, when the opportunity for a new government arises, the wisdom goes, we have only to step back and watch citizens embrace it.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/04/26/how-ca n-america-really-promote-democracy-abroad/3IxMLiJH dEnaIolNkeOGuK/story.html [bostonglobe.com]

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