Today, Viktor Yushchenko addresses the U.S. Congress, in part to thank the American people for supporting democracy in Ukraine. Earlier this week, President Bush hailed Ukraine’s “Orange Revolution” as an example for other countries where people are yearning for freedom. But some are warning that Ukraine marks a special case and only succeeded because the push for democracy came from the grassroots not from the outside.
This week, many are saying that Kyrgyzstan’s own revolution may have been nothing more than a coup, and that the U.S. should think twice before it puts its money toward supporting fledgling political movements for democracy. Creating democracy from the inside or outside.
Guests:
Thomas Carothers, democratization expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Adrian Karantnycky, senior scholar at Freedom House, part of the delegation meeting with Viktor Yushchenko
Edil Baisalov, Chairman of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society in Kyrgistan, a non-partisan group funded in part by USAID and the US State Department.