Amy Chua launched a high-profile salvo in the "democracy sucks" movement of 2003. Democracy -- and markets -- are great in theory, Chua said, but given the realities on the ground, may not work for many poor countries.

Chua's argument is that in many developing countries, there's an ethnic minority that's disproportionately wealthy -- ethnic Chinese in Indonesia and the Philippines, whites in Venezuela, Jews in Russia, Indians in Uganda. Already, that's a dicey situation. But democratic and market reforms apply a spark to the powder, by making the "market-dominant minority" even richer, and giving the angry downtrodden masses a chance to act on their rage. Hence the unintended consequence of introducing democracy and markets to poor countries: ethnic violence and instability.

There's an immense academic literature on the causes of ethnic conflict of course. Chua, a lawyer, blithely ignores all that and writes about her own off-the-cuff ideas. Her thesis isn't exactly airtight. The democratic Philippines has had less violence against its Chinese minority than dictatorial Indonesia, for instance.

But that's not the point. Chua's book is above all a good read and thought-provoking, with lots of interesting country case studies. Read it and debate her as you go.