The D word

Easterly zings (or zinged, back when he had a blog): The 2011 World Development Report (WDR) on Conflict, Security, and Development several times refers to using “external forces” and “peacekeepers” to improve stability and reduce conflict. This led him to be curious why the Bank is so phobic of the word “democracy” but not “external forces”:

Thanks for the refresher in your April 8 letter on the restriction that the World Bank “not interfere in the political affairs of any member.”
And thanks for explaining that any descriptive use of the word “democracy” on Arab revolts by President Zoellick would be such an interference in political affairs of a member state.
I was just wondering if you would consider a deployment of outside military troops to be less of an interference than using the descriptive word “democracy”?

Roper on democracy for demagogues (HT: Dictatorchimp)

“Democracy! Allowing people to choose their own doom for over 2 500 years!” Or even better: “Democracy! Recommended by nine out of 10 demagogues as an effective way to legitimate corruption!”