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The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad Hardcover – 9 May 2003

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Fareed Zakaria (Author)
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Fareed Zakaria (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 17 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (9 May 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393047644
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393047646
  • Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 2.5 x 24.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 262,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Zakaria provides a much-needed intellectual framework for many current foreign policy dilemmas, arguing that the United States should support a liberalizing dictator like Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf, be wary of an elected 'thug' like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and take care to remake Afghanistan and Iraq into societies that are not merely democratic but free. "

A very thoughtful and intelligent book which is important for all Americans and those who would make American policy.--Peter Jennings, ABC News

About the Author

Fareed Zakaria has been called "the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation" (Esquire). He is the Emmy-nominated host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, contributing editor for The Atlantic, a columnist for the Washington Post, and the best-selling author of The Post-American World and The Future of Freedom. He lives in New York City.

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsAn absolutely fascinating book!
By Kurt A. Johnson on 15 Sept. 2003
Format: Hardcover
In this fascinating book, author Fareed Zakaria looks at liberty and democracy. In the popular imagination, liberty and democracy go hand-in-hand, with more democracy meaning more freedom and vice versa. But, since the fall of the Soviet Union, the spread of democracy around the world has often resulted in "illiberal democracy," where fanatical groups vote in leaders that use the power of the state against other groups, or even the election of a radical regime that effectively does away with substantive democracy.
Following the history of the West (and particularly the Anglo-American part) from the Roman Empire to today, Dr. Zakaria shows that Western History followed a course, where enlightened despotism led to respect for the law, to transparency and balancing of power within government, to capitalism, and finally to restricted democracy (elected representatives instead of direct democracy, unelected judges, a constitution that the government could not violate in spite of overwhelming majority approval, and so forth).
But, in the modern West, unfettered democracy has become the newly enthroned ideal, and is being spread to the rest of the world, where it is producing some successes, and some dismal failures. Indeed, one has only to look at the present recall election in California to see what it is doing in the United States. As an added bonus, the author clearly focusing in on recent trends with in India, the Islamic world, and other parts of the world.
This is an absolutely fascinating book. I have always heard the Founding Fathers of the United States disparaged for their fear of unfettered democracy and a potential tyranny of the majority, but this book puts into concrete terms that which those men feared. While his solutions are somewhat nebulous, I did find Dr. Zaakaria's analysis to be highly thought provoking. If you are interested in examining what has happened to democracy in the modern world, then I highly recommend this book to you.
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4.0 out of 5 starsVery interesting , good points, but some flaws
By Mr. Duncan Macfarlane on 7 April 2006
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This, as the other reviewers have said, is an excellent book.
I learned several things from it.
Zakaria's main claim is that democratic institutions - especially election of the government by a majority or policy making by direct democracy/referenda - are not sufficient.
They may result in 'illiberal' or authoritarian democracy that doesn't protect minority or individual rights.
He also makes a convincing argument that resource rich countries tend to be less democratic than those that have to rely on a skilled, educated population - and on taxation- so that the government has to provide something in return for taxing its citizens.
However there are some flaws on top of the many good points that make this book well worth reading.
Zakaria says that Muslim dictators in the middle east are 'more liberal' than most of their populations as if this was an argument against too much democracy - when , i would argue, the growth of Islamic fundamentalism is a result of these foreign backed dictatorships which have made secular opposition weak.
To be fair Zakaria does make the point that the only political outlet left open under these dictatorships is the mosque.
Zakaria then confuses problems caused by the concentration of economic power in the hands of fewer and fewer companies and their lobbying power with the supposedly harmful effects of 'too much' democracy. He doesn't seem to have any concept of economic and social aspects of democracy other than free market ones - which in practice mean control of that market - and ultimately of governments and their policies - by the very wealthy and large companies.Read more ›
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2.0 out of 5 starsLet them eat freedom
By Ashtar Command on 25 Dec. 2010
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Fareed Zakaria's book is a pro-establishment look at globalization and its consequences. In contrast to Amy Chua (see my review of her book "World on Fire"), Zakaria isn't even mildly critical of globalization. On the contrary, he supports it to the hilt, from a very self-consciously establishmentarian, even "bourgeois" standpoint. At one point, he exclaims: "Without a bourgeoisie, no democracy". Unfortunately for Zakaria, not everyone agrees. In nation after nation, democracy has been used to vote in populist and vaguely left-leaning governments. In other words, governments which may threaten the gains made by the globalist "bourgeoisie".

What should the American establishment do to stop this? That's the real point under debate in "The future of freedom". Of course, Zakaria doesn't quite put it that way. Instead, he begins by pointing out that "democracy" and "freedom" aren't necessarily synonymous. This, of course, is true. The Nazis used the democratic process to take power in Germany. Hamas is a popularly elected government. Russia has democracy, but very little "freedom". Zakaria calls such a state of affairs "illiberal democracy". But what exactly does Zakaria mean by "freedom"? While he mentions equality before the law or an independent judiciary, what he really wants is protection of private property.

This explains the tendentious character of the author's analysis. He supports dictatorships which carry out market reforms, claiming that these will eventually turn into stable, liberal democracies: South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Chile and even mainland China. He doesn't mention obvious counterexamples. Indonesia carried out market reforms long before it became a democracy, yet its democracy is highly unstable.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

Bought as recommended reading for a degree I was doing, useful for that but boring as hell.

Published 9 months ago by David
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

just fine

Published 21 months ago by noni schuemer-lowrance
5.0 out of 5 starsThe future of Democracy is at risk because of too much democratisation...

This book is essentially about the notion that, too much democratisation and decentralisation, two beliefs that are often hailed as universally good, can be disastrous. Read more

Published on 21 Aug. 2014 by Ian Mack
1.0 out of 5 starsWhat Ashame-ful Zakaria ????

Plz safe our time !!! dont you know we are in the Net age ????? Please Dont waste your time as we wont be fooled by you or the CNN!!

Published on 12 Mar. 2014 by A Abubaker
1.0 out of 5 starsLike wading through treacle

Zakaria is very hard to read - it's like wading through treacle, in fact. I should declare at the outset that I had to read Zakaria's "The Future of Freedom" for a module at... Read more

Published on 18 Jan. 2014 by seniorhippo
5.0 out of 5 starsCan we pass laws ourselves?

This book tells the story of liberty and democracy. In its first chapters Zakaria describes how these two separate developments are related and how they influenced the world at... Read more

Published on 10 Jun. 2012 by Harm Hilvers
5.0 out of 5 starsdeepdrill

Nice deep drill and very relativating, a joy to read and a thrill to let it all fall at it's place in the scanning of our daily 'reallity'.

Published on 22 Sept. 2011 by Ad Arma
5.0 out of 5 starsa must read

First published during the Bush era, and now updated with an afterword, this is a must read for all who seek to understand why democracy doesn't work as a western-imposed quick fix... Read more

Published on 2 July 2010 by Saba Risaluddin
4.0 out of 5 starsExcellent overview, but very disappointing ending

The book looks at the 21st century and examines the challenges and threats to liberal democracy. The author first explains the history of how the West became liberal and democratic... Read more

Published on 17 Dec. 2008 by M. McManus
5.0 out of 5 starsA superb examination of liberty

A thought provoking and insightful examination on the true nature and realization of freedom, that being the freedom of man from the oppression of authority, or the community in... Read more

Published on 20 Nov. 2008 by Adrian J. Smith

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