Editing Dictatorships and Double Standards

{{Short description|1979 essay by Jeane Kirkpatrick}}
"'''Dictatorships and Double Standards'''" is an essay by [[Jeane Kirkpatrick]] published in the November 1979 issue of ''[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]]'' magazine, which criticized the [[Presidency of Jimmy Carter#Foreign affairs|foreign policy]] of the [[Carter administration]].<ref>{{cite magazine|authorlink=Jeane Kirkpatrick|last=Kirkpatrick|first=Jeane|date=November 1979|url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/jeane-kirkpatrick/dictatorships-double-standards/|title=Dictatorships and Double Standards|magazine=[[Commentary Magazine|Commentary]]|volume=68|issue=5|pages=34–45|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110228072902/http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/dictatorships-double-standards/|archivedate=February 28, 2011|url-status=dead}} See also [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671438360 ''Dictatorships and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics''].</ref> It is also the title of a 270-page book written by Kirkpatrick in 1982.<ref>[[Jeane Kirkpatrick|Kirkpatrick, Jeane]]. (1982). ''Dictatorships and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics''. {{ISBN|0-671-43836-0}}.</ref>

The article in ''Commentary'' magazine in 1979 is credited with leading directly to Kirkpatrick's becoming an adviser to [[Ronald Reagan]] and thus her appointment as [[United States Ambassador to the United Nations]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Tim|last=Weiner|author-link=Tim Weiner|title=Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan's Forceful Envoy, Dies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/washington/09kirkpatrick.html?pagewanted=print|work=The New York Times|date=December 9, 2006|access-date=September 13, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Timothy|last=Noah|author-link=Timothy Noah|title=The Elusive Ronald Reagan|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032801933_pf.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|page=C04|date=March 29, 2007|access-date=September 13, 2008}}</ref> Hence, the views expressed in Kirkpatrick's essay influenced the [[Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration|foreign policy]] of the [[Reagan administration]], particularly with regard to Latin America.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/2006/12/14/jeane_kirkpatrick/|title=Mugged by reality|last=Blumenthal|first=Sidney|author-link=Sidney Blumenthal|work=Salon|date=December 14, 2006|access-date=August 27, 2020}}</ref>

Kirkpatrick argued that by demanding rapid liberalization in traditionally [[Autocracy|autocratic]] countries, the Carter administration and previous administrations had delivered those countries to [[anti-American]] opposition groups that proved more repressive than the governments they overthrew. She further accused the administration of a "double standard" in that it had never applied its rhetoric on the necessity of liberalization to the affairs of [[Communist state|Communist governments]].

The essay compares traditional autocracies and Communist regimes: {{quote|[Traditional autocrats] do not disturb the habitual rhythms of work and leisure, habitual places of residence, habitual patterns of family and personal relations. Because the miseries of traditional life are familiar, they are bearable to ordinary people who, growing up in the society, learn to cope....

[Revolutionary Communist regimes] claim jurisdiction over the whole life of the society and make demands for change that so violate internalized values and habits that inhabitants flee by the tens of thousands.}}

Kirkpatrick concluded that while the United States should encourage liberalization and democracy in autocratic countries, it should not do so when the government is facing violent overthrow and should expect gradual change rather than immediate transformation.

== Criticism ==
[[AFL–CIO]]'s [[Tom Kahn]] criticized conceptual problems and strategic consequences in Kirkpatrick's analysis. In particular, Kahn suggested that policy should [[Democracy promotion|promote democracy]] even in the countries dominated by [[Soviet communism]]. Kahn argued that the Polish labor-union [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] deserved United States support and even in its first years demonstrated that [[civil society]] could expand and that free [[labor unions]] could be organized despite Communist regimes. Kirkpatrick's analysis of Communism underestimated the democratic potential of the working class.<ref>{{citation<!-- Allows "others=" unlike cite journal. -->|title=Beyond the Double Standard: A Social Democratic View of the Authoritarianism Versus Totalitarianism Debate|first=Tom|last=Kahn|author-link=Tom Kahn|journal=New America|publisher=[[Social Democrats, USA]]|date=July 1985|url=http://www.dissentmagazine.org/wp-content/files_mf/1389820828d12Kahn.pdf|format=PDF|others=January 1985 speech to the 'Democratic Solidarity Conference' organized by the Young Social Democrats (YSD) under the auspices of the Foundation for Democratic Education}}
: Reprinted: {{cite journal|title=Beyond the Double Standard: A Social Democratic View of the Authoritarianism Versus Totalitarianism Debate|last=Kahn|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Kahn|journal=[[Democratiya]] |volume=12|issue=Spring|year=2008|orig-year=1985|pages=152–160|url=http://www.dissentmagazine.org/democratiya/docs/d12Kahn.pdf}}{{dead link|date=December 2016|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

Ted Galen Carpenter of the [[Cato Institute]] noted that while Communist movements tend to depose rival authoritarians, the traditional authoritarian regimes supported by the United States came to power by overthrowing democracies. Thus, he concludes that while Communist regimes are more difficult to eradicate, traditional autocratic regimes "pose the more lethal threat to functioning democracies".<ref>Ted Galen Carpenter (August 15, 1985). [http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa058.html "The United States and Third World Dictatorships: A Case for Benign Detachment"]. Cato Policy Analysis. No. 58.</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Kirkpatrick Doctrine]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1979 essays]]
[[Category:American essays]]
[[Category:Anti-communism in the United States]]
[[Category:Essays about politics]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of the United States]]
[[Category:Presidency of Jimmy Carter]]
[[Category:Works originally published in American magazines]]
[[Category:Works originally published in political magazines]]
[[Category:Autocracy]]