Hm. In theory. Sort of like....communism?
Michael Ignatieff writes in this weekend's NYT Magazine:

...the recent sight of tens of thousands of people out in the freezing streets of Kiev, night after night, reminded jaded democrats everywhere that democracy is the one political system that says to every individual: you matter and your vote matters. So bad leaders can't treat democrats like fools and expect to get away with it.

But then the best short paragraph ever (which I am posting so that I can personally refer to it over and OVER):

The president's faith that God is on the side of freedom and democracy may be one reason that he has been so casual about detail and was so astoundingly assured in claiming ''mission accomplished'' in Iraq when the mission had barely begun. Another question mark over the administration's commitment to democracy abroad is its attitude toward democracy at home. Democracy is something more than red-state majority rule. The democratic faith also requires respect for the judiciary, deference to constitutional separation of powers, decent respect for the opinions of mankind, not to mention democratically ratified treaty law like the Geneva Conventions and, last but not least, the humility that goes with knowing that you serve the people, not a providential design that only you and other true believers can understand.

Democratic Providentialism [NYT]
- posted by liz @ 12/12/2004 11:16:00 PM