Ebb Tide of Freedom?: The Future of Democracy


 

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace

Author(s): Niall Ferguson

Research Area: Human rights

Keywords: Democracy

Type: Report

Abstract:

After riding high on the wave of democracy that began with the 1989 fall of the Berlin wall, the recent events on nearly every continent unsettle those who dream of a world governed by the ballot box rather than the bullet. There is no reason that Democracy should not be possible in any of the world’s civilizations; however, it can (and probably must) be a protracted process. And that is precisely why it would be rash, after a few bad years, to prophesy the death of democracy—as rash as it was to predict its triumph after a few good ones.