Israeli politician Natan Sharansky spent years in the Soviet gulag for the "crime" of fighting for his people's right to emigrate from the Workers' Paradise, so he is uniquely well placed to teach us about the blessings of freedom and democracy. The Case for Democracy, written with Ron Dermer, convincingly argues that freedom can take root in places it has yet to grow, and that the United States, which for decades has relied on the "stability" of seemingly friendly dictators to protect its interests, should use its power and influence to promote the spread of democracy - not just because it's the right thing to do (though it is), but also because it is in America's best interests in the long term. ("The democracy that hates you is less dangerous than the dictator who loves you," writes Sharansky.) With Americans arguing about what should be done with Iraq in the face of a determined insurgency, The Case for Democracy couldn't be any more timely.

Sharansky argues that nations can be divided into two categories: free societies, in which the people may express their views and opinions without fear of arrest or punishment by the state, and and "fear societies", in which the people are denied this fundamental freedom. Citizens of free societies are also given the right to elect their leaders, of course, but Sharansky says elections alone are not enough: a free press, an independent judiciary, and the rule of law must be firmly in place before genuinely free elections can be held. (The recent Iraqi elections have been absolutely magnificent to behold, but one wonders whether the elements of a free society are ready, and therefore whether the polling has been held too soon.) The rulers of fear societies, on the other hand, exist only for the purpose of remaining in power indefinitely, and to that end they need to crack down on all forms of dissent and popular expression, and to make popular anger remains firmly fixed on real or imagined external enemies. (That's why the leaders of Syria, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia, fear societies all, need the "Zionist entity" as a safety valve for their citizens' wrath.)

Sharansky has no time for the argument that certain societies are incapable of organizing themselves in a free, democratic manner. Just as people say the dream of Arab democracy is nothing but wishful thinking, people once said the Germans, Japanese and Russians would never evolve into free societies. Today, the notion that Japan or Germany will devolve into tyranny is almost impossible to believe, and while trends in Vladmir Putin's Russia are worrisome, Sharansky calls the country a "bastion of freedom" compared with the old state that kept him in prison, and says it is far too early to write off Russian democracy. "To believe that the Russians long for a return to a totalitarian past...is like believing that African-Americans who suffer from unemployment and poverty long for a return to slavery," he writes.