Democracy?

Jan Eliasson, Professor at University of Göteborg, appeared on Kunskapskanalen on television yesterday. He discussed the power of the word with some faculty rhetoric experts. He gave interesting accounts of this importance from his work at the UN.

What stayed on the retina was what Eliasson said on the use of the word "democracy". He had been in negotiations with people and a Pakistani friend informed him that using this word in discussions with Arabs does not work. Possibly this fact had been caused by the democratization attempts on Iraq and Afghanistan. Eliasson and his audience liked yelling a little at George W. Bush.

This is interesting because I have heard through the grape vine that it is not possible to discuss the word democracy in Europe either, although I would not reveal my source. Whatever the reason for this might be?