Democrazy

People often complain when the New York Times Sunday Book Review assigns someone to a book that he's guaranteed to hate. But it can be just as bad when the reviewer agrees so much with the author that all he can do is nod. Such as Patrick Cockburn's review of Robin Wright's
Dreams And Shadows: The Future of the Middle East.

Still, as long as we know the reviewer's biases, it's not that big a deal. What I really want to discuss is this little sentence near the end: "Both the Algerian election in 1992 and the Palestinian poll in 2006 showed that the West will not accept an election won by its enemies." Just what does this mean?

Or to put it another way, just what does democracy mean? Where does it get its legitimacy? If you believe in Democracy, the legitimacy comes from the consent of the governed. (You might further claim that Democracy without basic human rights isn't worth having, but that's a separate argument.)

But if another country votes in a referendum that the United States should provide them with aid, we are not compelled to do it. And if another country votes in someone who runs on a platform of trying to destroy the United States, we hardly have to treat him with respect. To put it simply, when others vote, their choices are binding on them, not us.