real liberal democracy. And even if the United States a liberal democracy. In Russett’s essay, he lays out many different criteria for a liberal democracy. The most prominent prerequisites are the exercising of civil rights, economic liberties, political election voting by citizens, and a three year existence of the government (Russett,1999, p.74).The United States during this time had no trouble at all in meeting Russett’s criteria. The United States was an icon of the time as to what a democratic government is and should be. Numerous experts on political theory, including Raul Geroff, conclude, “United States was the symbol of what a state seeking democracy should strive for. On the other side of the fence was Iran. During the months between 1951 and August of 1953 the country was under the premiership of one man, Mohammad Mossadegh (Mosaddel, 1989, p.17). There were many faces of Mohammad Mossadegh. He had managed to leave quite an impression on the American press. In January 1952 TIME magazine went so far as to select him as their “Man of the Year“. While the magazine described him as a “dizzy old wizard”, America along with the rest of the world was unsure about how Mossadegh’s governing style and political views (Gregory, 1952, p.30).Despite media and societal views, Mossadegh’s governing in no way fits into the mold of the terms laid out by Bruce Russett in his democratic peace theory. One major aspect of this was that there were no contested elections in Mossadegh’s rise to the Premiership (Gavin, 1999, p.65). Mossadegh was neither elected by Iranian citizen nor voted into his position by members of parliament. Mossadegh was brought to power by one man, the Shah, who was heavily influenced by violent, unruly, and undemocratic mobs (Risen, 2000, p.10). Regardless of the Pro-Mossadegh rallies, there was a definite lack of popular sovereignty surrounding Moh...
