Iraqi Constitution

James L. Tyson wrote an article in 1996 to the effect that imposing American-style Democracy in Third-World countries may be harmful. To read a fuller version of this article click here.

The gist of the article is that when a country has several large ethnic groups, with different languages and different cultures, sometimes the American model doesn't work very well. The author offers the Swiss model of government as an alternative. Switzerland has French, Italian, Swiss and German populations, yet they all seem to live in peace and relative harmony. The author suggests that countries like Iraq, with its Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds, may work better also with a Swiss-style government.