The United States in an Age of Globalization - Democracy and the World.

Essay by y2fuCollege, UndergraduateA+, October 2005

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The definition of democracy as stated in Webster's dictionary "Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives", this is the type of government implemented in the United States of America. Democracy is considered the supreme form of government, which is promoted throughout the world. On the contrary, there are many countries that are not ruled by a democracy. This causes the United States to promote democracy around the world. In Michael McFaul's article "Democracy Promotion as a World Value" he says that democracy has become universal and international. Democracy has become embraced and promoted by a number of countries not just the United States. In contrast, the many criticisms of the global spread of democracy are stated in Thomas Carothers' article "Democracy's Sobering State" .

Promoting democracy, especially after the September 11th attack, has become a primary goal of United States foreign policy. This has caused an international debate on whether or not the United States should discard the notion that every country, that is not already democratized, should have this "ideal" type of government.

Is the United States democracy efficient in providing a better-quality life than non-democratic countries?

In the last century, the biggest threat to democracy was communism, particularly the Soviet Union. The competition between the Soviet Union's economic model of "state ownership" and the United State's "capitalist" economy was close at hand (McFaul 149). The fixed prices produced much higher growth rates that the United State's capitalist economies. After the death of Lenin, communism took a downfall. Under the new rule of Stalin, collectivization and industrialization was established. Industrialization was used to combat western democracy. Industrialization focused on the development of iron and steel, machine tools, electric power and transport. The people, usually peasants worked on state owned farms and given the bare...