REGIME CHANGE INC! DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTIONS ARE THRILLING!
http://www.demdigest.net/blog/2013/09/democracy-assistance-one-size-does-not-fit-all/
In her FP article “Reforming the Democracy Bureaucracy,” Melinda Haring describes U.S. democracy assistance as “a giant mess…..in desperate need of reform.” She bases her claim on a critique of programs implemented by for-profit development contractors and U.S.-based nonprofits like the National Democratic Institute (NDI). - Instead, Haring says that small grants from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to local pro-democracy groups should be the only form of U.S. assistance in authoritarian countries that the Freedom House Freedom in the World index ranks as “not free.”
  [[[[[It’s an attractive idea. We all love democracy and hate dictators(EXCEPT THE SCORES WE FUND AND KEEP IN POWER). Let’s stop messing around with the oppressors (((and just fund the opposition activists.))) And let’s cut out the middleman while we’re at it]]]] [[[[Democratic revolutions are thrilling, exciting, dramatic events featuring photogenic activists battling the police on city streets and squares. ]]]]] Building a state is a drawn-out slog starring morally ambiguous government functionaries under flickering lights in dingy buildings. Being part of a democratic revolution is like falling in love. Governance is more like trying to make an arranged marriage work.
[ed note: This extract is taken from a longer article published by Foreign Policy’s Democracy Lab....Tomas Bridle, of the Society for International Development, has designed and implemented programs to support democratic transition and strengthen governance in Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Iraq and Pakistan. From 1992-93 he served as an advisor to President Vaclav Havel in post-communist Czechoslovakia.