The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.

• Author: Rabel, Roberto
• Position: Book review

THE CASE FOR DEMOCRACY: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror Author: Natan Sharansky with Ron Dermer Published by: Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2004, 303pp, $35.

This work is an important primer on democracy, which merits more attention and debate than it has received in this country. Having earned its author an invitation to the White House shortly after its publication, this influential book is credited with contributing to President George W. Bush's policy of promoting democracy in the Middie East. Following his meeting with Natan Sharansky, Bush pronounced The Case for Democracy a 'great book' and urged people to read it. Potential New Zealand readers should not be deterred by this recommendation from a now deeply unpopular President, who is regarded as having distinctly limited experience when it comes to reading.

Sharansky's arguments are simple and direct. They are built around the distinction between two four-letter words: 'free' and 'fear'. In free societies, according to Sharansky, 'people have a right to express their views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm'. In contrast, those who live in fear societies are unable to dissent and most engage in 'doublethink; whereby there is an agonising disjunction between what individuals say and what they really think. Such societies also include indoctrinated true believers and brave dissenters, whose numbers usually depend on the degree of the repressiveness of a dictatorial regime. Given the right opportunity, according to Sharansky, the double-thinking majority (and even many true believers) will join the dissenters to embrace freedom--as occurred in Eastern Europe when the Cold War ended. Consequently, he is convinced that the desire for democracy is universal and not relative to cultural, religious or other norms.

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These arguments draw on Sharansky's experience as a leading dissident in Soviet times and later as a Cabinet minister in successive Israeli governments. Some commentators have sympathised with him in his earlier guise but criticise him as an alleged member of the Israeli 'right' in his latter role. Yet, for Sharansky, his principles have remained unchanged. Just as he fought for religious and other freedoms in the Soviet Union, he advocates democratic rights for Palestinians too. But he does also contend that the national and personal security challenges faced by Israel warrant some constraints on individual and...