Is democracy promotion in developing countries a feasible idea?. (UPSC CSE Mains 2019 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 2).
- Although democracy has become a worldwide phenomenon post World War 2, people in the developing world still struggle to understand the spirit of democracy beyond its letter.
- Advocates of Asian values like Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohammad argue that democracy is a western concept, not traditional to most of the world’s cultures. And cultures having a democratic tradition have a better chance of making democracy work. The third world states are ‘overdeveloped’ as said by Hamza Alvi where the masses still lives in the traditional society. There exists a wide gap between the social morality and the democratic morality of the developed states.
- In such a scenario, democracy becomes a guided democracy as in Indonesia under Sukarno, or basic democracy and Islamic democracy as in Pakistan or Iran. The states in such countries are vulnerable to authoritarianism and are ridden with corruption and maladministration. At its worst, such a system declines into kleptocracy.
- Attributing to the traditional nature of society, there are deep ethnic divisions along the linguistic, tribal and religious lines in these nations. These various groups also remain at different stages of socio-economic and political development. For instance, Samuel Huntington has argued in his Clash of Civilisations that Islam has a profound effect on politics in the global south and New democratic regimes have been constructed or reconstructed on Islamic lines.
- Whether democracy is suitable or not, there is little doubt that the alternatives are worse. While the forceful promotion of democracy may be counterproductive, the development of a democratic society is a necessity. In this aspect, the information revolution has worked to support a resurgence of democracy as seen with Arab spring. It is helping in the deepening of democracy by giving voices to people. Masses are on the streets in Hong Kong and Thailand to fight for democracy. We should accept the non-linear progress of democracy in such developing countries. After all, democracy is an ongoing, dynamic process instead of a singular achievement.
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