Can democracy be won without a gun?

[ertmann|CPH]

Originally posted by General Geoff
It's not just Islam; all religion is rooted in evil.

[hijack]Oh, and ertmann|CPH, you're kidding yourself if you think democracy can be won without force, or some derivative thereof (in reference to your signature). As long as there are violent potential tyrants and corrupt governments, guns will be needed.[/hijack]

I think you are wrong, you should take a deeper look at the fall of apartheid in South Africa (where international preassure and economic sanctions lead the De Klerks abolishment of apartheid), or Ghandi's peace movement in India, i think you'd be surprised, even though i am aware that the violence part isn't exactly black and white

perhaps the Solidaritet movement of Poland, who played a great part in the fall of the Iron curtain, could interrest you aswell...

a more intressting story is the democratization of Turkey, until recently Turkey at a bad reputation at best, on it's human rights accord, if you take a deeper look at the progress made within the past 10 years, it's amazing, and pretty much all of this can be attributed to turkeys aspirations to join the european union (mostly for it's economic benifits for Turkeys troubled economy)

To a lesser extend, this is the case for Croatia aswell

This has in essence become the language of the EU's foreign policy, instead of using guns, the EU plans to use it status as the worlds greatest economy (in gdp) to presure goverments to respect human rights, for great economic rewards, this policy is still in it's infancy, and won't be effective before the EU constitution is inacted, but i believe it holds great promise...