1. " Nevertheless, if your quote of Friedman is anything to go by, it explains that it was NOT a failure of democracy that gave way to civil war in Lebanon, rather a DEPARTURE from democracy. allow me to copy-n-paste that quote again for reference: " Departure from democracy in itself indicated the failure of democracy and the institutions. Maybe demoacrcy was not institutionalized, maybe the issues were not addressed democratically... but why? becuase by then nobody believed in democracy. Israel and Syria tried to take advantage of the situation, but the departure from democracy or democratic failure, it means the same. All democracies become failures when they depart from the principles of democarcy. The key is how to make them stik to it? 2. I do not have much in disgreement with the likes of Kaplan and Zakaria who point out the fact that democracies in some countries brought more chaos. They are absolutely right. However, their analysis is only one "daanaa" in a whole "anaar daanaa" that needs to be understood in the context, rather than hug their implications as a reflection of reality -- that of the larger picture -- as a whole. Agree. There are others too who think differently. 3. You see, they write about momentary relapses in law and order and other chaos that particularly the beginning of democratic process entails. The tragic trend has been to dismiss democracy just because it brought some hardships in the beginning. Political and social transformations are not easy to come by, and are not always pleasant in the beginning. However, the problem of lack of basic structure that you claim needs to be in place for democracy to be fruitful -- satisfied janata (in terms of food and $$$), educated mass, properly functioning civil society, etc. -- can ONLY be most effectively address by democracy and freedom in the long run. I disagree.. Again look at the East Asian examples, including China. 4. As exemplified by the Panchayat era in Nepal, the more we wait for the "right time" to implement democracy, the more we lag behind in terms of human growth, which is crucial in democratic success. What exactly is human growth? Better human capital? 5. Ther greatest (and the best) irony of democracy is that it corrects itself. Better democracy is ONLY possible through democracy itself, and it is NOT a package that can be delivered once an authoritarian ruler decides that his people are ready for it. No one is, and noone will ever be, ready for democracy -- it is an ONGOING process that, if left intact despite initial problems, will inevitably herald a stronger, healthier and prosperous society. Yes, it does but it does not correct itsl;ef in the short run.. it takes awfully long time, and simply in today's interconnected world, we cannot have a dysfunctioning democracy and instability, so that we can have a functioning democarcy after 30-50 years. This is my view. Stronger, healrthire and properous society in the long run but civil wars, fragmneted societies and dirt poor societies until democracy corrects itslef after 10-20-30 years... so we should have democarcy.. no, I don't agree with this approach. 6. Therfore, I think the criticisms of democracy by the likes of Zakaria and Kaplan are either misplaced in their initial virtue, or wrongly misunderstood by some of their readers. Once again, they are absolutely right in pointing out the initial problems of democracy, But those problems are/shoud be expected, and they should not be reasons to bring the process of democracy to a halt because, as I implied earlier, the process sweeting of the entire fully grown "anaar daanaa" does not deserve to be destroyed by few bad "daanaas". They are noit criticizing demoarcy.. They are saying look the system has its flaws and there are two ways of demcratizing: overnight transition which might not lead to liberal/functioning demoarcy or gradual phase wise manner by first initiating the economic liberalization which has proved to lead to liberal functioning democarcy..That's their approach, and that's what (if I DIDN"T MISREAD OR MISUNDERSTOOD THEM) understood. Of course, I could have totally misread them. But as of today, based on my (mis) reading that's what I got.