Mr. Mahadin, a prominent opposition figure who writes for the independent Jordanian daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm, has extensive pro-democracy credentials.
Russia, Jordan and "even China," the group said, have "gotten into the game" of merely using the word democracy to claim real democratic credentials.
Today, some people in Kazakhstan are prospering from its oil resources, though the country's credentials as a democracy are in doubt.
The liberal hawk, as he is often described, has been boosting Poland's credentials in the democracy promotion industry by high-profile visits and consistent criticism aimed at reform laggards and wayward authoritarians.Countries of the EU's Eastern Partnership, set up jointly by the Poles and the Swedes, have born the brunt of it.
Another ace in the hole for Mr. Kim has been the country's burgeoning civic groups, which once strongly supported the president because of his credentials in the democracy and human rights movement that date to his long years as a persecuted dissident.
Fearful of this impoverished bunch, many Protestants with longer standing American credentials declared that American democracy was only safe in the hands of a people with an unmitigated relationship with God.
But it could offer a chance for western doubters to start looking more rigorously at the credentials of other fragile democracies on the list with a view to slowing the whole business down.
Venezuela's democratic credentials are robust for Latin America — democracy has held since 1958 — but pale by U.S. standards.
Mr. Augstein meanwhile had cemented Der Spiegel's credentials as an emblem of West German democracy and the freedom of its press, and its stark contrast with the Soviet Union's grip on the Communist regime in East Germany.
He faces a barrage of criticism - including tarnishing Senegal's credentials as a mature, stable and peaceful democracy with a republican army that has remained in its barracks.
