Good point, tequila. It might be added that in both cases some effort at democratic politics was inevitable as soon as intervention took place, given both international and local expectations (especially in Iraq).
It also has to be said that we really don't yet have a good idea (despite all the political science energy that we put into this) as to when democracy will function, and when it won't .
Why didn't India--with its lack of democratic experience, extreme poverty, many ethnic, religious, and caste tensions (arguably the most of any country), and the extreme violence of partition--collapse into chaos and authoritarianism after 1947, the way most post-colonial countries did?
How has Mozambique sustained democracy since 1992, despite having experienced bitter anti-colonial (1962-75) and civil (1975-92) war that left left almost a million people dead through its direct and indirect consequences?
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