There's some real danger that cosmetic reforms at the state level--more programs, no results--will be enough to stave off penalties under the new law.

We attended to these autocrats in the name of stability, accepting their corruption and economic mismanagement as its necessary price and satisfying ourselves with false promises and cosmetic reform.

The contagion is already spreading across the region: to Yemen, Jordan, Algeria and elsewhere, as regimes scramble to offer cosmetic reforms to head off more radical change.

The North African revolutions might, indeed, prompt even the more autocratic Central Asian regimes to think about putting a series of cosmetic reforms in place.

Last spring, a group of influential Alawites urged Assad to apologise for the repression and pursue genuine rather than cosmetic reforms.

"This is all cosmetic reform, and an attempt to satisfy the United States."

They easily beat back a major reform movement by university presidents a decade ago and have allowed only cosmetic reforms since.

"There is a growing realization that cosmetic reform won't fool anyone," Mr. Abrams said.

Meanwhile, mass demonstrations in Leipzig spread to other cities and Honecker was replaced by his security chief, Egon Krenz, who introduced cosmetic reforms.

Ironically, should the verdict be nullified, it is likely to assuage the guilty liberal conscience without which even cosmetic reforms will remain stillborn.