Book Review: The Case For Democracy

As a former Soviet dissident and former member of the Israeli cabinet Natan Sharansky brings to the table a perspective that allows him to authoritatively comment on the never ending clash between free and fear societies that few others can. The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom To Overcome Tyranny & Terror is a provocative appeal to the free world to take up the fight for freedom throughout the world and to aid the millions who thirst for freedom in their own lands. In the book he covers three main points:

• The compositions and differences between free societies and fear societies,
• the importance of moral clarity in today's world,
• and why the only way to achieve peace is to spread democracy.

He doesn't simply make these points through abstract theoretical arguments however, but through drawing upon his own experiences as a Soviet dissenter and Israeli Cabinet member. By drawing upon his experiences in the Soviet Union, he provides a first hand account of what life was really like within that country, and revealed how easily the free world can be duped into believing that the situation within a fear society isn't as bad as it really is. Furthermore, he invokes the policies of former American political leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Scoop Jackson to illustrate how the free world can further the cause of human rights by making diplomatic and economic support of fear societies conditional on democratic reforms within that country. By using the metaphor of the soldier having to keep his gun raised at all times he also emphasizes how the free world must insure that it never props up the arms of a dictatorship.

He applies this to the Middle East peace process as well. As he makes abundantly clear, peace with the Palestinians hasn't been achieved because Israel and the world have tried to accomplish peace by increasing the power of Yasser Arafat. During his time in the cabinet Sharansky was really the only one who argued that the only way the Palestinians and Israelis could live in peace was if Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority's tyranny was removed and a free society and subsequently a democratically elected government took it's place.

As Mr. Sharansky put it, democratically elected leaders are dependent on the people they govern, and thus they must work to improve those peoples' lives to remain in power. In contrast, dictators must create foreign enemies to stay in power, justifying and deflecting attention away from their own oppression. All the attempts at peace with the Palestinians never worked because Arafat had to scapegoat Israel for all the Palestinians' problems, which incubated a culture of death and hate. If peace had been achieved, than Arafat would have had no one to justify his oppression with and would have lost power. This is not exclusive to the Israelis and Palestinians, for if we are to ever achieve a lasting peace than we must end tyranny in our world and spread freedom and democracy to every corner of the globe.