The Future of Freedom (2003)

Hind sight is much easier than foresight, so I tried to read beyond that and current political views, and enjoyed at least the first ½ to 2/3rds of the book very much. He makes a valiant and worthy effort in trying to bring to terms the unrelated terms of Freedom and Democracy, yet like so many falls back into the trap of proceeding on the assumption of one necessitating the other. He meets the other ultimate trap of assuming Democracy was designed to give us a nest of security, safety and be stability. When in fact it is just the opposite, our Republican Democracy was created to maintain our freedom, allow us to use our wings and to be a constantly changing order, to adapt to a constantly changing world, in fact to encourage it. One must remember Freedom is not free, it is a constant effort to find and maintain, stagnation is it’s greatest enemy. I often revert to this sightless insight: Security is mostly superstition; it does not exist in nature. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. – Helen Keller ( )

Zakaria's one of the more interesting writers on international relations working today. There's a lot of good analysis in this book, but it could use a little more polish. ( )

very informative -- wish I had read the book when it first came out. am motivated to read his update. I found the last third of the book the most interesting when Zakaria goes into detail about how too much democracy might not necessarily be a good thing -- example = California, and how the state has put itself in difficult financial positions through voter decisions.
Good book. ( )

In this book, Mr. Zakaria differentiates between Liberal and Illiberal Democracies. The main idea is that taking free elections as the only aspect of democracy results in catastrophic results as in the case of Nazi Germany or Hamas in Gaza.
Instead, he says that liberal democracy, which implies individual rights, rule of law, separation of powers and free elections are essential requirements to have a successful state.
I found this book very interesting and the author's ideas clear and thought provoking. I think I'll look forward to reading more by Mr. Zakaria. ( )