We need the power of America, but it is hard to recognize it. Specially among citizens of Western Europe, people do not have a good opinion of American foreign policy. The situation varies if the White House incumbent is a member of the Democrats, but in general, it is like a tradition to criticise American actions and ask for helping when things are getting worse. Man is contradiction.
Although the economic crisis seems to prevent from thinking about other public policy questions, sometimes it is healthy to reflecting on other deeper matters. What kind of political regime do we want? We are aware that political systems in Western democracies are so corrupt. Internet is renewing a new sort of popular participation, but I do not very sure whether its force is going to destroy the high walls of power. We face the huge problem of professionalization of politics and, at the same time, the lack of interest ordinary people show in the political scene.
One of the most intriguing things of the think tank phenomenon is to determine if these research and policy action units have a real influence in the development of politics. In fact, most of them assure that they have a certain persuasive power over the decisions of government. It is the suppossedly main proof they offer when trying to justify their existence and in the funding process. However, due to the lack of systematic research on the think tank activities and the youngness of many institutes, it is still difficult to draw consistent conclusions about the topic.
A long time ago, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America that were going to sacrifice freedom in favour of security. It is the logical evolution of democracy, where citizens are frightened by the threats of insurgent people who want to destroy their confortable althoug sometimes unfair system. The last terrible episodes of our recent History show that the military confrontation between countries has been replaced by the fight against those destructive groups. The attackers could come from other countries but also they could be people without national indetity. Even they are members of our communities.
I do not share all the principles classical liberalism defend. It is probably because I do not believe in a perfect man, nor in a road to perfection. Imperfection is in our genome. However, in the think tanks environment there are very intelligent people who passionately promote the free market policies. Where they work in small institutes, only funded by individual donations, usually they are very clear-thinking persons. It is worth to follow their proposals because the analysis of the economic and political keys is so well focused.
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