Our sonsofbitches are dead

There is a humourous and well-written take on dictators titled "There are two kinds of dictator: ours and theirs. Ours are better" by Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard University in the Sunday Telegraph.

Some quotes:

"On the other hand, Kirkpatrick was surely right that conservative autocracies would be more likely to make that transition — and more likely to make it successfully. Not only Chile itself but also South Korea and Taiwan were among the many non-Communist autocracies to democratise in the 1980s. By contrast, the former Soviet republics, including Russia itself, have struggled to make a success of political freedom. It is tempting to say that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, personifies the disturbing tendency for ex-Communist countries to slide back into autocracy. Central Europe may be the exception that proves the rule."

and

"Our sonsofbitches are dead (mostly). So are theirs. But the world has not seen the last of self-propelled dictatorship, alas. As Jeane Kirkpatrick rightly said, democracy is unlikely to survive without "an economy strong enough to provide decent levels of well-being for all, and 'open' enough to provide mobility and encourage achievement, a pluralistic society and the right kind of political culture"."

and

"Plus ça change, it's tempting to say in the light of recent events in the Middle East. Except that today's failed democratisations are due not to the machinations of the Marxist guerrillas of Kirkpatrick's day. The problem today, from the Horn of Africa to Afghanistan, is more often the interaction of ethnic conflict and radical Islam, a threat disastrously underestimated by most Reaganite conservatives."