Review of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, by Thomas L. Friedman.
About the Author
Marc F. Plattner, founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy. He also serves as cochair of the International Advisory Board of the Institute for Political Studies at the Portuguese Catholic University.
Despite the persistent doomsaying about the political consequences of untrammeled international capital flows, financial liberalization may actually contribute to democratic consolidation.
The financial crisis did not deal a fatal blow to any democracies, but it did hasten an erosion of the influence of the West. In the future, the balance of…
