De ocracy Should b e Su by Carl Gershman This arti e presen gic and evidence that dem he spread of democracy consistently advances many important values, including individual freedom from political oppression, deadly violence, and hunger The first way in which the spread ofdemocracy enhances ves of those who live in uding freedom of expression, freedom of democracies is by promoting individual li ience, and freedom to own private property, Respect for the erty of individuals is an feature of democratic politics. A democratic political process based on electoral competition depends on freedom of expression of political vi ews and freedom to make electoral choices, Moreover, governments e public are less likely to deprive their citizens of human rights. The global e accoun spread of democracy is likely to bring greater individual liberty to more and more people, Even mperfect and illiberal democracies tend to offer more liberty than llutocracies, and liberal democracies are very likely to promote liberty. Second, people should support liberal democracy because the citizens of liberal democracies are unrest or at the hands of their governments. These two findings ess likely to suffer violent are supported by many studies, but particularly by the work of RJ, Rummel, Rummel finds tha democracies between 1900 and 1987 saw only 0.14% of their populations (on average) die annually in intemal violence. The corresponding figure for authoritarian regimes was 0.59% and for to regimes 1.48%.28. Rummel also finds that citizens of liberal democracies ar far less likely to die al Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes such as the Soviet Union, Nazi hands of their governments. Germany and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge have been responsible for the overwhelming majority of genocides and mass murders of civilians in the twentieth century. third reason for promoting democracy is that democracies ter to enjoy greater prosperity over Why do democracies perform better than autocracies over the long run? It is ong periods because democracies that embrace liberal principles of government a foundation for long-term economic growth. Individuals will only make long-term create investments when they are confident that their investments will not be expropriated. These and other economic decisions require assurances that private property will be respected and that contracts will be enforced Fourth, democracy should be supported because the citizens of democracies do the tenible hist concludes that "one of remarkable famines. The economist Amartya famine has e occurred in a country with a democratic form of of famine that no substantial government and a relatively free press," Democratic countries do not experience famines because their governments are accountable to their populations and leaders have electoral incentives to prevent mass starvation. The need to be reelected impels politicians to ensure that their people do not starve. On the other hand, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes are not accountable to the public likely to pay a political price for failing to prevent famines. Moreover, authoritarian and totalitarian rulers often have political incentives to use famine as a means of exterminat eir domestic opponents