Congruent with other historical trends of worldwide revolutionary sprees of the 1780s and 1880s, democratic revolutions of the 1980s were heavily influenced by the influence of foreign powers, pressures and ideologies. It could even be argued that many of these democratic revolutions were sparked by foreign influence, as many of the revolutionary speeches or agendas catalogued in Padraic Kenney’s 1989 Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War’s End: A Brief History with Documents cite democratic processes, instances, or ideologies from other countries as a means for gaining support and illustrating the necessity for democratic staples such as freedom of speech and freedom of expression. While many of the revolutionary participants portray foreign…show more content… Jingsheng first starts out by defining democracy and its merits before illustrating the specific ways in which a few other countries enjoy them. He uses the example of the American and European people having the power to oust corrupt officials, specifically Nixon, de Gaulle, and Tanaka, as an example of how “no one can interfere with their rights” . This strategy of using foreign examples of democratic processes becomes even more powerful when Jinsheng compares to how “In China. . . if a person even comments on the . . . “Great Man”. . .the mighty prison gates and all kinds of unimaginable misfortunes await him” . Utilizing the influence of another nation’s ideologies compared to his own country’s proves an instrumental rhetorical tactic showing reading how their immediate lives could be improved while also as giving real-life examples of democracy. Both effects work coherently to persuade readers towards the conclusion that democracy is a reasonable, necessary, and realist solution worthy of pursuing. Instead of declaiming the threat of foreign ideas and processes, as some of the other speakers and authors, Jinsheng instead positively identifies how the influence of foreign democracy could be used as a benign benefit to the revolutionary
