Democracy is floundering in . . . Europe? An Iranian nuke stand-off may not be so imminent. Musharraf is playing the spin doctor; the United States made Iraq a magnet for terrorists; and tanks rolled through Bangkok but bullets are still flying in Southern Thailand. And why can't something be done about genocide in Sudan? With so much going on this week, maybe you missed the quiet stream of articles questioning the relative peace and stability that exists across Europe. Ivan Krastev claimed in the Sept. 27 Wall Street Journal that Europe's best kept secret is not that old Europe has second thoughts about the euro, it's that "new Europe has second thoughts about the merits of democracy." "Not that Central Europeans dreamily hope for the return of communism or any other form of authoritarianism. But a large majority says that their countries aren't run according to the will of the people," wrote Krastev, who noted nearly "two-thirds of the publics in the eight recent EU entrants from the region plus Bulgaria and Romania judge that elections in their countries have not been free and fair."
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