The FrongPage Magazine has a good interview with Nathan Sharansky, a former Soviet political prisoner who spent time at the Gulag. He makes a solid case for democracy.

To understand why dictators have a problem with making peace – or at least a genuine peace - the link between the nature of a regime and its external behavior must be understood. Democratic leaders, whose power is ultimately dependent on popular support, are held accountable for failing to improve the lives of their citizens. Therefore, they have a powerful incentive to keep their societies peaceful and prosperous

The power of dictators on the other hand is not dependent on popular will. For them, staying in power is a function not of keeping people happy but rather of keeping them under control To justify the degree of repression necessary to sustain their illegitimate rule, dictators constantly need to mobilize their people against external enemies. The only peace that can be made with a dictator is once that must be based on deterrence. For today, the dictator may be your friend, but tomorrow he will need you as an enemy.

All those who argue that the US once supplied arms to Saddam Hussein may do well to remember the underlined words. Sharansky also recollects his experience with the KGB interrogators where he underscores the essence of being free, and the ideal of freedom.

My interrogators were ready to burst from laughter, but they would not dare laugh in front of another KGB agent at such a joke, so they pounded on the table and shouted at me. I told these jokes not only to irritate my interrogators - which of course was always a source of pleasure - but also to remind myself who is really free and who is really in a prison — the interrogator who cannot even laugh when he wants to or you, who is free to think what you want, say what you want and laugh when you want. It helps remind you why you are really there and why you will never want to return to the life of doublethink and fear.

Somewhere I read that a dictator is only so powerful as his immediate subordinates will allow him to be.