One Dollar, One Vote: The Role of Democracy and Free Markets in the National Security Strategy
Abstract
Early in the Clinton administration, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake suggested that a strategy of enlargement of the "free community of market democracies" would replace the strategy of containment. Although the Administration has retreated from democratic enlargement as the keystone of its national security strategy, the explicit linkage between democracy and free markets, and implicitly, to prosperity is featured throughout the 1997 national security strategy. This linkage is problematic in both theory and practice. It assumes a positive relationship between a state's internal organization and capabilities and external behavior, and a correlation between free markets and prosperity and between free markets and democratic institutions. This linkage is further complicated in practice because one can measure how "free" a market system is and how prosperous it is, but democracy lends itself only to qualitative and subjective judgments. The underlying assumption that democracy and free markets lead to prosperity seems to obviate the need to choose between those goals. In practice, and especially in the short run, these goals may compete with each other. In policy planning, efforts to promote free market systems are likely to take precedence over those to promote democracy because of the following: (1) the objectives are clearer, (2) the development of democracy is a long-term project, (3) natural constituents of free market economies are better organized, and (4) the international system has strong mechanisms already in place to promote free market systems. If the promotion of democracy is indeed a core U.S. interest, the national security strategy should emphasize the contribution of democracy to free market systems, but level the playing field by refraining from case-by-case judgments. This would entail efforts to strengthen the long-term institutions upon which democracy rests -- free media, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and political pluralism.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA442770
Entities
People
- Sharon Squasson
Organizations
- National War College