It is commonplace today to regard liberty and democracy as
inextricably correlated — if you have one, you must have the
other. Yet as Egypt and other failed democracies are showing, that
is not the case. Indeed, we are rediscovering some fundamental
truths that the American Founders knew — that liberty is an
essential precondition for sustainable democracy and that there is
more to democracy than majority rule.
We often forget that the Arab Spring was brought about not by an unquenchable thirst for democracy, but by restraints on trade. The self-immolation of street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi in front of the Tunisian parliament that set off the Arab Spring was caused not by a desire for a vote in who should rule that country, but because of the repeated confiscation of his wares by local police, culminating in the confiscation of his scales. His last words were, “How is a man to make a living?”
As Tom Palmer of the Atlas Network notes, this basic plea for human dignity reverberated around the Arab world. The Egyptian wing of the protests blew up particularly over police brutality.
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/07/12/egypts-missing-precondition
We often forget that the Arab Spring was brought about not by an unquenchable thirst for democracy, but by restraints on trade. The self-immolation of street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi in front of the Tunisian parliament that set off the Arab Spring was caused not by a desire for a vote in who should rule that country, but because of the repeated confiscation of his wares by local police, culminating in the confiscation of his scales. His last words were, “How is a man to make a living?”
As Tom Palmer of the Atlas Network notes, this basic plea for human dignity reverberated around the Arab world. The Egyptian wing of the protests blew up particularly over police brutality.
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/07/12/egypts-missing-precondition
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