Normally, democracy is a good word. But when Americans say they are going to promote democracy abroad, what exactly are they talking about?

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said in a 1995 National Security Strategy Report that to promote democracy abroad is one of America's three major national strategies, alongside to strengthen military forces and bolster economic revitalization.

When, how and to which countries should democracy be brought to? According to this Clinton Administration's report, the underlying logic behind these decisions is that America's engagement is "selective," so that the nature of U.S. response must depend on what best serves its own interests in all cases.

For democracy promotion, compared to those human rights disasters the U.S. has created in Iraq and Afghanistan, the less well known is Americans' broader, softer and therefore stealthier pushes around the globe.

The non-governmental organizations (NGO) in the previous report have been especially pointed out by the White House as the important forces in implementing its interventions globally.

Let's take the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as an example.

Founded in 1983, the NED is a NGO claiming promoting democracy abroad as its goal. Many see the NED as a replacement for the CIA's efforts to implement Washington's regime change plans abroad. The Washington Post quoted one of the NED's founders, Allen Weinstein, as saying, "a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."

The NED receives grants from the U.S. Department of State every year since its establishment. In fiscal years 2015 and 2016, the NED received a total of more than $300 million from the U.S. Department of State, which is its primary source of funding.

The NED provided a large portion of these grants to four core institutes, including the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI).

The NED and these institutions must then comply with requirements like U.S. Federal regulations. The use of funds must follow U.S. government's guidelines for determining whether any costs of grants are "allowable, reasonable and allocable."

The leaders of these institutions also have close ties to Washington. The current chair of the IRI is U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, and former Clinton administration Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is now leading the NDI.

These NGOs are sponsored and regulated by the U.S. government and defend the U.S. national interests. They operate in most regions of the world and interfere extensively in the internal affairs of multiple countries.

A report by the U.S. Congress once specifically recommended that, in Thailand, U.S.-funded NGOs should intervene in its political system and influence the government; in Indonesia, the U.S. government should provide more funding to NGOs, helping them to work on affecting political parties and elections there.

Now in Ukraine, Venezuela, Kyrgyzstan and other countries, many people have been or are currently facing the threat of so-called "color revolutions" in which these NGOs are widely and deeply involved.