the Theory of Liberal Democracy' proposes that democratic intervention would enhance the lives of those living in the target state through the provision of what he sees as widely supported values such as individual liberty, freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Huntington, former director of Harvard's Centre for International Affairs, also proposes the imposition of liberal democracies would result less death as a result of civil unrest or government instigated violence. His studies have confirmed this trend as they find only 0.14% of a population living under a democracy die annually, which is lower than the 1.48% figure characterizing totalitarian regimes. Rudolph Rummel, founder of the democratic peace theory, reasons that Huntington's statistical trend stems from the sentiment that should a government be committed to democratic principles, critics of the state would not need to stage violent insurgencies, but rather, engage in the electoral system. Economic benefits of democratic institutions have also been cited by proponents. In a 1996 Wall Street Journal analysis, transitions from autocracy to democracy in the years 1980–1993 have seen GDP increases top 4.32%. Strobe Talbott, former US Deputy Secretary of State, argued that the political legitimacy afforded by democracies, even if imposed by intervention, allows states to better implement economic reform that would be accepted by their electorate. Criticisms Normative criticism The social theorist David Beetham states that democratic intervention infringes the sovereignty of the target state. He proposes that the intervening state risks being an illegitimate occupying force, which in turns incurs resistance from within the target state resulting in intensified insecurity. Beetham also argues that intervention may not be able to achieve democratization if outweighed by the other interests of the intervening state. De Mesquita and Downs proposed that the US military and hegemonic interests are reasons as to why democratic interventions into Iraq and Afghanistan failed to produce self-sustaining and effective democracies. Democratic intervention is also scrutinized by Beetham for the loss of human life it has caused. US intervention into Iraq had resulted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed or wounded with four million displaced internally or living refugees in other countries. Destabilizing effect Democratic intervention is also criticized on the basis that it ignores the social conditions and dynamics that define the target state. Feffer and Junes of Foreign Policy in Focus suggest a failure to understand the communities and a unified sense of nationhood would result in