Socioeconomic Needs Of Liberal Democracy example essay topic

America's Mission America's Mission, America's Mission Essay, Research Paper America's Mission, as stated exhaustively by author Tony Smith was and is to promote and foster liberal democracy throughout the world. Smith contends that US foreign policy in the latter half of this century was dominated by liberal internationalism or Wilsonianism. Smith begins his analysis by explaining Wilson's vision of American; describing America's ideals of liberalism and its history implementing those ideals. After the fall of the Third Reich, the US abandoned its isolationist policies in favor of a more internationalist agenda. Smith attempts to examine the impetus and "national security' motives behind America's awakening to the world scene, the effects of that awakening on certain individual countries, and the overall effect of the world on a systemic level. Smith opens with an analysis of liberal democracy and poses certain historical questions and comparisons that may or may not be valid.

His analysis of Reconstruction and its democratic roots is superb, supporting notions that I have only thought were my own abstract thoughts. His implication that radical liberalism was perhaps the best historical course which the US could have taken, although at the time it was not politically expedient, is a point well taken. He demonstrates that there is a difference between what many believe liberal democracy is: the attempt to do what is humanly right and accomplish little or fight to achieve the achievable but miss the broader picture. He sites the moderate liberal outcome of the Reconstruction years that enfranchised former slaves with political rights but failed to achieve lasting reform because of the unwillingness to go further with socioeconomic reforms. Conversely, the stubborn radicalism of Wilson may have proved itself in the long- run, but failed to result in any contemporaneous results. Smith admits that countries with different histories and cultures cannot have democracy thrust upon it without some adverse effects.

Smith also attempts to further his arguments by citing the faults of the realist philosophy, saying that realism gives the idea of power and national security too much credence in the formulation of foreign policy. He implies that with the rise of liberal democracies in the world realism becomes antiquated. No longer does the fate of the world lie in the hands of a few men, liberal democracies are too complex in their functioning to be understood on the basis of relative power alone. With these precepts Smith analyzes specific happenings and events in US foreign policy history, using historical examples to prove his hypothesis. He dedicates Part I of the book to the first sign of American world interventionism with the conquest of Cuba and the Philippines in the Spanish- American War.

He espouses that it has become the practice of the US to promote democracy in its dealings with other nations. The case of Latin America is an example of his thesis, the conditions of the countries are not ripe for political reform alone to stabilize them. Therefore Wilsonianism will not work because of the lack of depth that only constitutional reform will provide. At the same time the acceptance of authoritarian regimes in the hope that they will be friendly to US interests is hard to argue when brutal dictators receive the grace of the leading country of the free world The second part of Wilson's analysis involves the rooting of democracy in the defeated axis powers. President Truman sought to instill the ideals of democracy in the people of Japan and West Germany because it was the most rational thing to do and it could be seen as politically feasible because of the Communist threat. The Marshall Plan was historically sound in that it promoted the socioeconomic needs of liberal democracy and was politically popular.

The democratization of the former Axis powers served to benefit the raw power of the western democracies over the Communists. In Parts and IV Smith addresses the Cold War and US efforts in both Korea and Vietnam. His hypothesis continues to be correct in that US is misled to think that democracy should prevail as long as a nation's people understand its concepts without true socioeconomic reform or true democratic roots. In Vietnam the people had no background for the understanding or appreciation of democracy and would not risk their lives to see it prevail, or even work to experiment with its results. Smith concludes that the US liberal internationalism is sometimes blind to the needs of the people they seek to impose it upon. And at times this apparent blindness is a facade to sweeten the need for the betterment of American interests.

The invasion of Panama may be seen as an excuse for the promotion of American interests under the facade of international democracy, while the Somalia operation could be characterized as ignorance of the lack of democratic roots of certain countries that makes democratic government virtually impossible. Smith promotes liberal democracy and the extension of democratic development to nations who can feasible ly evolve into a democratic system with democratic roots, and despises the realist method of accepting dictatorship because it promotes immediate stability America's Mission by Tony Smith: A Review 32 a.