Electronic Bulletin, March 2008, No. 15

Electronic Bulletin
Public Affairs Section, U.S. Consulate General, Hong Kong
March 2008, No. 15

(The Electronic Bulletin is an information service published by the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate General and provided to subscribers by e-mail and fax. Except for the U.S. Government sites, the opinions expressed on the Internet sites listed here do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Government.)

Can We Export Democracy?
Tamara Cofman Wittes, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
Christopher J. Coyne, West Virginia University
Cato Policy Report
January/February 2008

This report is available online. (PDF file)*

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INTRODUCTION

The United States has attempted to export liberal democratic institutions through military occupation and reconstruction throughout its history, with mixed results. For every West Germany or Japan, there is a Cuba, Haiti, Somalia, or Vietnam. Why do we observe such different outcomes in military interventions? Do efforts to export democracy help more than they hurt?

At a November 26, 2007 Cato Book Forum, Christopher J. Coyne, assistant professor of economics at West Virginia University and author of After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy, and Tamara Cofman Wittes, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, examined the problems with installing democracy.

(Source: The Brookings Institution website)

Subject: Democratization