Hamas characterized this as an attempted Fatah coup by Abbas, using undemocratic means to overthrow the results of a democratically elected government.

He said, "defending democracy by undemocratic means destroys democracy."

What they share, says Rieff, is a desire to pursue utopian ends by undemocratic means.

He was particularly critical of Mr. Gorbachev's political proposals, saying he is trying to carry out "democratic reforms through undemocratic means."

"Sometimes in order to safeguard democracy, we have to use undemocratic means such as administrative detention," President Moshe Katsav said this week.

Increasingly, the affair has come to look like a crude political ploy: a democratic government ousted by undemocratic means, and now threatened with judicial disqualification of candidates.

"You can't introduce democracy by undemocratic means."

"They should all go because they came to power in this country by basically undemocratic means," said Susanne Milanovic, a 23-year-old Belgrade University student.

Of course, we also condemn the coup d'état and any attempt to seize power by undemocratic means.

"Defending democracy by undemocratic means destroys democracy."