The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror [Hardcover]

In this book, Mr. Sharansky shows how tyrannical systems of government are never good governments with which the West can safely interact, but that they create instability and terror, both within their borders and without. He makes the point that the thinkers in the West must come to realize that there is a world of difference between free societies and fear societies, and that to make a peaceful world, the West must make the call for freedom a cornerstone of its foreign relations.

This is a fascinating and perspicacious work, and in it Mr. Sharansky makes a very convincing argument that the West must press for freedom around the globe. He is clear that many governments are far from perfect, but that when a government recognizes basic freedoms, it can and will move towards more freedom and more peaceful relations with the rest of the world. Overall, I found this book to be enlightening and totally convincing, and am quite sure that it reflects a good deal of thinking within the Bush White House.

So if you want to read a fascinating and thought-provoking book, then you must read this book. Also, if you want to understand an underlying thrust of the Bush administrations foreign strategy, then you must read this book. I give it my highest recommendations!

The most uplifting aspect of the book is Sharansky's narration of the collapse of the soviet union. The most depressing aspect is the hash that he considers everyone - Europe, the US, successive Israeli governments - has made of moving towards a separate Palestinian state. I was feelling quite optimistic about the role of the security fence in removing terrorist violence, but he reminded me that leaving the Palestinian regime to continue as a "fear society" condemns its people to more years of poverty, doublethink, and propaganda.

He makes no connection to the micro-level, but I think his message applies there to. Just as a free, democratic society functions better than a fear-filled dictatorship, which inevitably carries the seeds of its eventual implosion, so a family with authoritarian parents is doomed to disaster as the children defect to freer climes as soon as they have the physical and mental power.

My favorite paragraph is when the author discusses how the elite in a free society start to lose perspective about what is truly totalitarian and what is not. The line between a free society and a "fear" society is blured in the elitest mind so that they end up supporting leaders like Castro, Hussein, and others in the guise of what's "right."

Great and easy read for everyone.