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Comment by fleischhauf | Hacker News Reader

germany didnt have great experience this looking at the the invasion of ukraine and russian gas being exported to germany

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Exactly. I would argue the world is divided between free democracies and authoritarian dictatorships. If the entire world were like Germany or Taiwan, it would be a far more peaceful place. Trade increasing is a small incentive. Democracy has checks and balances on power.

We need a League of Democracies rather than a United Nations.

Treating all nations as if they respect human rights the same is a major folly that experts like Henry Kissinger have made all of their lives. The world is not a game of Risk where it's power vs power. The system has a fundamental impact on the behavior of the state.

The democratic world should not do business with dictators or Communist countries. All we do is empower those with no checks-and-balances on power. Hard empire building as China and Russia are attempting is difficult to do in a democracy. Not impossible, but far less likely.

The problem is that it is hard to define what a "democracy" is. Obviously one-party states and countries without elections aren't democracies. But other countries, like Russia, have all the trappings of democracy, with elections, a parliament, multiple parties, and so on and yet obviously aren't really democratic. Then there are countries like Poland and Hungary which seem to be on a similar path to Russia. And Western European countries and the US aren't immune to these trends either.

That’s generally addressed with the democracy index.

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