№ 6 - 2003
Stuhr J.J.
Revealing Democracy Anew (II)

In the second part of his article that we are presenting in Russian translation (for its first part see Polis 2003, № 5), the U.S. scholar analyzes the prospects for the establishment of true democracy in the world, in the light of the events of September 11, 2001. As he concludes, conditions favourable for democracy will be available only when people’s individual way of life (and not only their governments) becomes, without any allowances, democratic. Therefore he is convinced that the task of extending and spreading the democratic values remains, in the long run, an educational one and implies, first of all, getting into the habit of thinking and dealing democratically. Accordingly, America, in the author’s opinion, should not confine herself to the usage of military force for purposes of defence and for punishing aggressors, she ought to apply all her cultural resources for the cultivation of active and conscious adherence to reason and negotiations, to the values of pluralism and liberty, to the institutions and practices of democracy and to the principle of self-criticism.