ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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Next time you'd need to explicitly specify a source for the statistic or classification, too, as Caplan often does; if you squint really hard there are always some given definitions of "democracy" that will work. It's a squishy word.
For instance: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. All are in the Greater Middle East. Musharraf resigned in August 2008 and succeeded by Zardari in September.
Not that I disagree with your case; this only works if you twist the word "democracy" as far as it will allow. But I think you should define your bets more carefully :p
. All are in the Greater Middle East.
'greater middle east'? is this a real term? i've encountered plenty of dumb normal people who think that south asia is in the middle east, all us 'brown folk' look the same to them, so so worries about that. but is there a term in the scholarly literature 'greater middle east'?
I considered asking, but then assumed that if you hadn't said in the original post, you for some reason didn't want to.
@razib - No, the Bush administration came up with it.
Congrats David. Yes there was a lot of the Neocon Kool-aid being consumed during that sad period in American history.
Peace be with you.
[Broken link fixed.--Econlib Ed.]
* Well, I don't see how Iraq can't count.
* Lebanon had the "Cedar Revolution" in 2005 which sort of, finally led to elections in 2008.
* The Palestinian National Authority had its first semblance of democratic elections in 2005 and 2006 after 10 years or so of single party semi-statehood and deferred elections.
So that's three, and I'd say I don't think you should say you won this bet. Overall, the bet seems poorly specified more than anything.
According to Freedom House, two Middle Eastern countries went from being ranked Not Free to being ranked Partially Free between 2003 and 2008 (Lebanon and Yemen). Iraq got a Not Free ranking in 2008 because of the sectarian violence and the continued large scale presence of U.S. troops. So by that standard David would have won his bet, but just barely.
I get your point but you actually lost the bet. Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. I guess you can weasel out on Palestine except i believe most countries recognize Palestine as a state.