Title: The Lost American - Post-Cold War | FRONTLINE | PBS
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Content: A important side effect of the collapse of the Soviet Union has been the reorientation of former Soviet client states, especially those in the Third World, from centralized to market economies. This in turn stimulated disenchantment with centralized government and socialist government structures were abandoned in favor of market-supported democracies. In essence, many revolutionary movements were stripped of an ideology and doctrine upon which to base their social revolutions and simply ran out of steam. Democracy movements around the world gained momentum in the last decade and, as the global economy expands, their chances for survival increase. In Latin America, the number of dictatorships dropped from 14 to four in the last decade and as the superpower rivalry fades, the Western donors have increased the pressures on authoritarian regimes of all stripes to liberalize and share power. This has two implications: First, there is less tolerance of pissant dictators. What was once justified as strategic pragmatism in the Cold War is now looked on with disdain. Human rights abuses are less tolerated and gross misconduct of a government against its citizens is likely to be roundly condemned. Second, with the lower level of tolerance has been a corresponding increase in the West's willingness to take action to aid the victims and, in some cases, to intervene.