Juan Cole is the smartest man alive.
Seriously, this statement is so simple and yet the underlying truth is nowhere to be found in our foreign policy. Why are the best ideas permanently sidelined in the Bush administration? Yes that's a rhetorical question.
Democracy depends not just on elections but on a rule of law, on stable institutions, on basic economic security for the population, and on checks and balances that forestall a tyranny of the majority. Elections in the absence of this key societal context can produce authoritarian regimes and abuses as easily as they can produce genuine people power.