Morning Glory: Which nation leads 'the West?'

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Which nation is the leader of "The West?"

To answer that question you must first define what "The West" is.

There are a hundred different definitions, and indeed an entire PBS series devoted to that question. "Civilization: The West and the Rest with Niall Feruguson" debuted in 2012, and the accomplished historian issued a companion book at the same time and with the same title.

"In ‘Civilization: The West and the Rest,’" the summary of the book relays, "bestselling author Niall Ferguson argues that, beginning in the fifteenth century, the West developed six powerful new concepts that the Rest lacked: competition, science, the rule of law, consumerism, modern medicine, and the work ethic."

Those characteristics are fine and easily applied to exclude from "The West" tyrannies such as the People’s Republic of China, Russia and Iran and all of their puppet states or proxies. But it does not include the essential ingredient: freedom. "The West" is defined by this essential, must-have feature: Some significant measure of individual liberty. That liberty must include the rule of law and not the rule of despots or oligarchs. There is no rule of law where the law can be easily manipulated or avoided. There cannot be in any member nation of "The West" a secret police that operates without restraint and oversight but solely on the direction of unaccountable despot(s).

The members of "The West" have free elections at regular intervals and guarantee freedom of conscience, speech and almost always movement within their boundaries to their citizens. Constitutions of member states may be written as in the United States, or unwritten as in the United Kingdom.

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