Promise and Peril of Millenium Challenge Accounts

A must-read report on the Millenium Challenge Account has been released by the Global Prosperity Initiative at Mercatus Center. The Millenium Challenge Account is the new and brilliant method the Bush Administration is using to apportion out foreign aid. After decades of wasted billions of American taxpayer monies often given to the likes of Kim Jong Il in exchange for false bargains, Bush shut down the gravy train and plainly stated there will be no further aid unless there is progress in the following three areas: 1) ruling justly; 2) encouraging economic freedom; and 3) investing in people. The report's authors recommend Congress add to this criteria: 1) entrepreneurship; 2) property rights; and 3) political capacity to sustain reforms. I agree with the first two, but am puzzled by the third, which I believe opens the door to suggestions of "those people are just not ready for democracy." Of course, their argument is different -- citing the sad state of Romania as an example of a nation that was just not ready for help by USAID. Was it that they weren't ready for help, or was it that the political resolve just wasn't there on USAID's part to help push through necessary changes?