Democratize This

Democracy promotion is not a bad idea just because George W. Bush says it’s a good one.

Matt Yglesias writes

I’m not sure there’s very much the US government can or should do, in practice, to push Egypt into becoming a democracy.

Rather than add to the torrent of “yes, there is–no, there isn’t,” (except to say, yes, there is) I’ll plug the underheralded Congressional Research Service, whose recent report “Democracy Promotion: Cornerstone of U.S. Foreign Policy?” adds much more light than heat to the debate.

As a rule, I’d say that if you don’t know anything about a policy matter, CRS is a good place to start.