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USAID's Democratic Pluralism Initiative: Pragmatism or Altruism?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

Jerrold D. Green
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Abstract

This program is evaluated in order to analyze the ethical and practical issues likely to influence its success. Among those critical issues discussed are the U.S.'s definition of “democracy,” the relationship between culture and democracy, and the ability, or desirability, of the United States to export its own form of government as historical and cultural goals. Substantial attention is given to the ethical dimension of whether the United States is, or should be, concerned with democracy as a generic form of political organization or be more committed to the expansion of American influence irrespective of a country's political or ideological character. Noting that foreign aid is pragmatic rather than altruistic in origin, the essay questions the likely effectiveness of the Democratic Pluralism Initiative.

Type
Articles
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 5 , March 1991 , pp. 215 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1991

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References

2 These articles appeared in The New York Times on April 29 and May 16, 1990.

3 See Dankwart Rustow, “Democracy: A Global Revolution?”Foreign Affairs, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Fall, 1990), pp. 75–91; Samir al-Khalil, “In the Mideast, Does Democracy Have a Chance?”The New York Times Magazine, October 14, 1990, pp. 30–56.

4 See Leon V. Sigal, “Starved for Books: Another Hunger in Eastern Europe.”The New York Times, May 22, 1990.

5 Jane Perlez, “Nairobi Journal: This Envoy Starts Fires Just to Get Things Going,”The New York Times, May 12, 1990.

6 Jacques Barzun, Is Democratic Theory for Export? Sixth Morgenthau Memorial Lecture on Ethics and Foreign Policy (New York: Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, 1986), p. 5.

7 SRI International, Development of an ANE Democratic Pluralism Initiative: Rationale, Operating Principles, and Potential Projects (Unpublished report prepared for U.S. Agency for International Development), October 1989, p. 8.

8 Ibid., pp. 2–3.

9 These factors were identified by Professor Larry Diamond at a working meeting at AID devoted to the DPI on January 19, 1990.

10 For discussions of the origins of the Iranian Revolution and the factors that led to it, see Ervand Abrahamian, Iran: Between Two Revolutions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), and Jerrold D. Green, Revolution in Iran: The Politics of Countermobilization (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1982).

11 Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 18.

12 Ibid., p. 7.

13 See Saad Eddin Ibrahim, “Anatomy of Egypt's Militant Islamic Groups: Methodological Note and Preliminary Findings,”International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4 (December 1980), pp. 423–53.

14 Edward Muller, “Democracy, Economic Development, and Income Inequality,”American Sociological Review, Vol. 53, No. 1 (February 1988), p. 66.

15 Plenary address by former President Jimmy Carter at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, August 1989.

16 Barnett A. Rubin, “Pakistan: No Stamp of Approval,”The New York Times, November 1, 1990, p. A29.

17 Rami G. Khouri, “The Message From the Arab Grassroots,” in Jordan: Issues and Perspectives (Washington, DC: Jordan Information Bureau, No. 1, September 1990), p. 5.