has had many upheavals and changes in regime, going through two monarchies, two empires, one crypto fascist dictatorship and five republics, the united states by contrast has had a continuous constitutional existence. why is this important as we look at the world today? well in so many of these cases, what we are watching are democratic governments elected freely and fairly, that are abusing individual rights. ignoring minority parties and eroding checks and balances. observing the early flowering of the phenomenon in the mid 1990s, i described it as, ill liberal democracy and this is the problem we confront in the arab world and in so many other developing countries. the good news is that other elements within society are fighting against this kind of ill liberal democracy. political groups, student movements, even the clash between the egyptian military and the muslim brotherhood could be useful in the long run.