The dire legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan weighs heavily on the Western democracies.

They regarded Western democracies as weak unwilling or unable to respond to their evil extremism.

Yet the terrorist blows inflicted on New York, London, and Madrid over the past decade have not shaken Western democracies.

When Democracies Collide

The first relates to strengthening democracies.

The Great Democracies New Harmony

Authoritarian countries middle classes may push their leaders toward greater democracy, as in Russia, but Western democracies will also likely become more authoritarian.

Others argue that Western democracies have the opposite problem a surfeit of narrow, politically assertive interests leads to underinvestment and poor tradeoffs between present and future opportunities and performance.

Some of these democracies are very young and fragile.

This is exactly the malady of young democracies.

Contemporary democracies base their legitimacy on ensuring both political and social rights.

After the rise of the democracy in Athens, other city states founded democracies.

Liberal democracies in the West today are struggling to avoid and in doing so are exacerbating a crisis of identity, which puts the existing social contract at risk and threatens their implosion.

The first is that democracies have, as a matter of historical record, never fought each other.

It is for the same reason that my Government supports the Community of Democracies and participates in its activities.

Circulated in accordance with a decision taken by the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) at its 1st meeting, on 29 September 2005.

It seems that the agreement to remove and destroy the chemical weapons of Syria has removed the threat of an intervention by the Western democracies which will now not bomb Syria and add their own destruction to the destruction and death that they Syrians are inflicting upon themselves, with a little help from their friends.

The differences between the social democracies and the US show up strongly in category after category.

This term appeared to define a running evolution within democracies during the 21st century.

However the notion that Estonia or Latvia are ethnic democracies has been rejected by some commentators.

Political parties play a vital role in democracies and perform valuable political and social functions.

Korean Democratic Women's Union, Korea during 24 29 September, 2000.

Korean Democratic Women's Union, Korea during 17 21 June 2000.

Furthermore, the growth of trafficking in drugs and human beings in all the European countries had repercussions, and very few European politicians had escaped accusations of corruption, proof that so called Western democracy was not infallible.

Indeed, Haiti can become an inspiration for many other fragile and impoverished new democracies.

But, by and large, the developed democracies are characterized by competition between large parties on the center left and center right.

And it should never, never, empower brutal dictatorships to sit in judgement of responsible democracies.

Initiatives such as the Community of Democracies may contribute to these goals.

This may seem like a highly desirable state of affairs, conducive to the cultivation of a good life. But in the last few decades, Western democracies have been undergoing a marked identity crisis, manifested in an unwillingness to articulate organizing ethical principles or to project democratic values onto the international stage.

With the world s most successful democracies obsessed with recent failures, international politics has drifted toward more dangerous potential outcomes. Sensible deterrence, bold efforts to reform international institutions, and a readiness to fulfill responsibilities have all fallen victim to the West s exaggerated sense of failure and political stalemate.

Poland has the potential to become a European leader again. Firmly anchored in the community of Western democracies, its role transcends the technical aspects of the European integration process, for it bears the responsibility of ensuring that no new barrier excludes our Eastern neighbors from taking part in this process.

Mr. President, Iranians are dying for basic human rights and for basic democracy.

(Indeed, economists hardly complain when a country s trade liberalization harms competitors.)

More such campaigns are necessary to sustain new and fragile democracies in the developing countries.

So the heads of our democracies are treated like a famous person living next door.

So it seems that democracies are damned if they ban and damned if they do not ban.

Young democracies can be cruel their voters are often as unforgiving as political opponents.

They can provide one of the safeguards for honest elections in both emerging and established democracies.

As a founding member of the Community of Democracies, the Republic of Korea strongly supports the idea of establishing and strengthening democratic institutions.

Nor is its effect on established democracies straightforward. While democracies have arguably become more vibrant, their politics have become more volatile.

Recognizing that, while all democracies share common features, there is no one universal model of democracy,

Liberal democracies and open societies have traditionally relied on a fine balance of these three forms of power.

The more democracies there are, the more conflicts of interests and differences are likely to emerge between democratic countries.

WASHINGTON In most advanced democracies, a large center right party competes with a large center left party.

Poland, for its part, is committed to continuing its involvement in promoting democracy and its values, as well as to strengthening and consolidating the Community of Democracies.