Is Brazil the New Regional Champion of Democracy?
Is Brazil the New Regional Champion of Democracy?
Despite its historic aversion to anything smacking of intervention, Brasília has increasingly taken an active role against democratic reversals in Honduras and Paraguay. Just don’t confuse those actions with any commitment to U.S.-style promotion of liberal democracy.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama appealed to rising democracies around the world to help spread the democratic message, declaring that “we need your voices to speak out,” and reminding them that “part of the price of our own freedom is standing up for the freedom of others.”1
Many observers regarded this as wishful thinking. Democracy promotion, they argue, is a typically Western endeavor. While governments and NGOs in Europe and North America spend billions of dollars every year on democracy-related projects,...
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