"I loathe the idea of citizens being treated as docile and peaceful domestic animals, who are supposed to be content with their "master's" allowance of their basic, fundamental rights. " But you have to udnerstand that the majority in those countries and elsewhere might not be demanding your version of democracy. Maybe the majority is content with the way things work there. When one insists that the world ought to work according to his beliefs and ideals, things start to get complicated, hoina? There is no one size fits all approach with democracy and political systems. Some countries are developing without democracy, some are degenerating with democracy! Since we are talking baout democracy in Jordan, let me give you an example: In the late 80s, the Jordanian parliament comproising mainly of the radical islamists were trying to pass certain bills that could be considered "illiberal" the King intervened and blocked those bills from passing. So who is liberal- the parties or the King? Elections and freedom of speech, not necessarily produce the same results in many parts of the world as they do in the US and Western Europe.