David Cameron: We cannot impose democracy at the barrel of a gun

I am a liberal Conservative. Liberal because I believe in freedom, human rights and democracy, and I want to see more of these things in our world. But Conservative, because I believe strongly in the continued relevance of the nation state and because I am sceptical of grand utopian schemes to re-make the world according to a politician's timetable. My instinct is to work patiently with the flow of culture, tradition and history.

For me, democracy is not just a goal in itself. It is our best available mechanism for lasting good government that delivers economic, social and environmental progress. Democracies tend not to go to war with each other. Democracies offer a structure in which differences – including territorial and ethnic disputes – can be debated and resolved. Democracy gives every citizen a say.

But the case for democracy needs to be re-made and refreshed in every generation. Because there are always powerful forces which seek to stifle the universal human hunger for freedom. And I use the word "universal" because democracy is not the property of the West, nor an import to the East, it's not a system we impose, nor a value unique to any culture. They said democracy could never take root in countries like Germany or Japan. They were, apparently, too militarist, too authoritarian, too anti-liberal. But both are now flourishing democracies – standing rebukes to the prejudices of the past.

It has been argued that there's really no appetite for democracy in Asia; that the great nations of the East have their own path which leads away from democracy. Tell that to the people of Burma. Or Thailand. Or the Philippines. Tell that to the dissidents of China.

Today people say that democracy can never take root in Muslim lands, or that democracy is un-Islamic. I regard that view as another prejudice, which seeks to deny human dignity. There is nothing in Islam, and nothing in Islamic nations, which means that those nations cannot be democracies. Not losing confidence in freedom, human rights and democracy: that is the liberal part of liberal Conservatism, and we should welcome the opportunity to make the case for the open and plural society once again. But we should also remember the Conservative part. We should accept that we cannot impose democracy at the barrel of a gun; that we cannot drop democracy from 10,000 feet – and we shouldn't try.

That was what was wrong with the "neo-con" approach, and why I am a liberal Conservative, not a neo-Conservative. I believe we should work steadfastly to advance liberal values wherever we can to build the characteristics of an open society wherever we can, confident that in time, democracy will result.

This is an edited extract from a speech given by the Leader of the Conservative Party in Islamabad this week

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