A scholar of history, he published a treatise on the rise and fall of democracies in the Western world, The Remarkable Pattern of Western History, which plotted the course of democratic development over the past 2,000 years.
With reference to these now famous assertions this article traces the promises and pit-falls of democracy from ancient Greece to neo-liberal economies, to ascertain if the democratic state is indeed the ideal mechanism for promoting public health.
His book Die Verspielte Freiheit (1989) appeared in English translation in 1996 as The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy.
Set against the backdrop of the Fall of Saigon, Democracy chronicles an ill-fated romance and the beginning of the end of the American empire. .
His stated mission as a writer, speaker, and commentator is to "Chronicle the decline and fall of entitlement democracy," a task he pursues with a smile and a cocktail.
"I have seen how a country can fall apart for lack of democracy and human rights," she said, adding that she has received hateful messages about her heritage — her father is Muslim and her mother Christian.
President Obama can provide leadership but the daily, gritty work of democracy falls to each of us, along with all its glorious benefits.
Vietnamese leaders became overly subservient to China, falling out of the orbit of democracy and far behind the rest of the world, a world into which Vietnam now desperately needs to integrate itself so that it can grow and develop.
Even as many Mexicans celebrate a milestone in Josefina Vázquez Mota, the first woman to be selected as the presidential candidate of a major Mexican political party, the number of women in office at the most basic level of government — in the small cities and villages that are a backbone of democracy — still falls notably short.
