Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Microbusiness (w/ pics)

Every corner throughout Russia—from the countryside to the cities—yields a thriving micro-business. Villagers sell fruits and vegetables and веник reeds along the sides of roads. Trinket salespeople crowd city sidewalks, battery-powered furry creatures beep and walk in every direction. Cart vendors sell everything from beer to ice cream and magazines to souvenirs. But it isn't what they sell that is surprising, it is the sheer quantity of businesses that overwhelms me. Everywhere, mini-buses, amateur taxis, hustlers on trains; there is an entire class of people that eek out a living as a sole proprietor, conducting every element of business from sales to service on his or her own and without outside support for inevitably minuscule business ventures.

I think that the capability of an individual to construct such a micro-business might impact that person's proclivity for a democratic governmental transition, and in new democracies, might impact the degree of content with democratic government. Imagine yourself in the situation: on Wednesday the communist government provides every element of life for you, from health care to living space all the way to your daily diet. On Thursday the new capitalist democracy gains a foothold and you are on your own. Maybe the company you work for collapses; maybe you had worked for a government agency that no longer exists. Now you need to find money to provide for your family. If you can make something, sell something, grow something you are not in a terrible circumstance. If you can not and rely on finding a job, perhaps the economy is slow to start and your family starves to death in the mean time. I think that a strong micro-business economy will help predict Democratic Proclivity, and I think that Russia has this particular platform for democratic success.

Even just a hundred years ago this was likely not a serious problem because of the infrastructure of economies—worldwide, small agricultural enterprises made up a majority of the world superpowers' economies. Every Joe and Jane had a small farm and they could sell what they produced and make a sustainable income. As the world became more industrialized and infrastructure complicated, people more and more rely on local, national, and inter-national cooperation for their sustenance. Corporatization has cost the private sector its individual independence. Obviously not terrible, but post-fascist and post-communist nations will inevitably struggle (at least initially) to maintain their economic strength and stability. In the meantime, micro-businesses can fill the gaps.
Posted by Conditioning Democracy

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Why Build Foreign Democracies?

Strong Democracies support the national security not only of the United States, but of the whole world. I'll explain this in terms of psychology: most people are in many important ways fundamentally similar. Natan Sharansky' book, The Case for Democracy, outlined an argument for freedom that relied on this belief. Essentially, people everywhere want the same things: peace, security, satisfaction, etc. Free societies will support these ends because people can act toward achieving what is in their best interest. Wars are truly not in the general interest of people. Free societies are safer because people will choose to be safe. When confronted with a simple choice between death and life, in a free society people will choose life.

I can already hear everyone shouting at me: "But they're different! If those people are free, they will all want war--they'll want the destruction of the United States and all the civility and culture of the West!" This doomsday scenario is actually a perfect example of the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). Look it up on Wikipedia. Don't feel bad if you feel this way, but you are not looking at the whole picture. We all have a tendency to overemphasize the role of the person and under-emphasize the power of the situation. It's impossible to judge what people who are living a fear-based society would do if they were living in freedom. But why would you jump to the conclusion that they are somehow fundamentally different from us? I think people see themselves in a wholly separate manner from the way they see anyone else. Just assume with me for the moment that other people want the same things from life that you do. They want to survive, they have fears, they want to succeed, they want some modicum of happiness, etc. What would the world look like? Probably very similar to the world that we already live in, right? People are placed in different situations. It's hard to imagine someone who would want an ultimately different set of goals in life. And everyone wants to be free. And everyone wants to be safe. And war does not fit into this picture at all. Free societies support everyone's security.

Aside from our own collective security, some have mentioned that strong liberal Democracies have a moral duty to spread liberal Democracy to other countries. I find this argument weak so I won't go there. But you certainly can.

And aside from both of those, liberal Democracies support the progress of science, industry, and economic development. If you think these are bad, then A) I feel sorry for you, and B) ignore this argument and take one of the above. Free societies liberate the innate creativity, ingenuity, and curiosity of humanity. This is what fosters development in these areas.

Proposing "Conditioning Democracy"

After nine years in the Gulag, Natan Sharansky might have conclusively refuted the self-evident nature of inalienability of Liberty in the USSR. Instead, he emerged triumphant, voicing the universal appeal of freedom in his seminal book, The Case for Democracy. With the moral clarity of America at stake, Sharansky writes about the inevitable rise of freedom and Democracy with moral authority like Andrew Jackson spoke about Manifest Destiny and like Karl Marx wrote about Communism: people in every country yearn to be free, and non-democratic governments prohibit this freedom. However with growing resentment toward the War in Iraq, criticisms of the expenditures of the United States on democratizing foreign countries have grown vociferous. The United States is past due for an policy overhaul: Americans want to maximize the impact of every resource allocated to promoting Democratic initiatives. John Prados’s Safe for Democracy identifies five tools that the United States has utilized to promote Democracy: behavior examples, diplomacy, economic sanctions, military force, and covert operations (propaganda). Each of these tools relies on Sharansky’s argument in a large measure for their success; each tool requires that people yearn for their own Democracy.

“Conditioning Democracy” proposes Democratic Propensity Theory to shape the much-needed policy overhaul. With a unique focus on individual endorsement of Democracy, “Conditioning Democracy” relates psychological principles to Democracy initiatives. The United States is missing a sixth tool from its toolbox: conditioning people for Democracy, creating the yearning for freedom from within individuals. Exposing individuals from emerging Democracies to successful Democratic deliberation experiences increases the individual’s propensity for Democratic government. Conditioning Democracy proposes policies that incorporate professional “operational” psychologists into missions that “condition” denizens of emerging Democracies, whole communities at a time, to accept the potential both for participation in Democratic government and Democratic rule of law. If policy-makers consider the evidence that I will present in “Conditioning Democracy,” new policy should both more efficiently use resources and perhaps also save lives.

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