This is an interesting thread concept, and I'll probably return for discussion in greater detail later, when I'm less busy.

Let me just say that I believe democracy requires a well-established and sizeable property owning middle class in order to be successful. I believe that attempts "democratize" third world countries, which lack that, will meet with marginal success at best. It seems to me that countries comprised mainly of poor citizens will make uninformed decisions and 'elect' regimes with dictatorial ambitions, landing them right where they started. Democracy requires an educated populace that can bring some pressure (of various sorts) to bear on their elected officials.

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[b][SIZE=2]"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."[/b][/SIZE]

-Thomas Jefferson