The Role of Democratization to the Issues of Development

The current military regime in Burma claimed that the government was accelerating the momentum of implementation of ‘development projects’ all over the Union with a view to serving the long-term interests of the national people.

In this essay, I would like to identify the role of democratization to the issues of development.

During the late twentieth century, democratization was an extraordinary global burst and liberal democracy has become one of the essential conditions for development in all societies. Democratization refers to the movement of political changes in a democratic action and such movement is based on two attributes of the state (Accountable government and free/ fair elections) and two aspects of civil society (Civil/political rights and associations and autonomy). Potter (1997) stated that the character of democratization is from less accountable to more accountable government, from less competitive (or non-existence) elections to freer and fairer competitive elections, from severely restricted elections to better protected civil and political rights, from weak autonomous associations to more numerous associations in civil society. (Potter, 1997, pp.6)

According to Samuel Huntington (1991), there are numerous waves of democratization. The first, long wave occurred in USA, Britain, France, Italy and Argentina from 1828 to 1926 and the first reverse wave was in Italy, Germany and Argentina from 1922 to 1942. The second, short wave occurred in West-Germany, Italy, Japan, India and Israel from 1943 to 1962. However, the second reverse wave was in Brazil, Argentina and Chile from 1958 to 1975. The first and second waves were regarded as ‘Historical democratization’ by scholars and the third wave commenced in 1974 has been still a global phenomenon that had an impact in developing countries around the world. (Potter, 2000, pp.368)

The term ‘development’ is a widespread concept that is related to various kinds of issues concerning famine and hunger, healthcare and diseases, unemployment and making a living, environmental degradation and sustainability, colonial legacy, culture, urbanization and industrialization.

For famine struggles, the role of democratization can be analyzed by using the examples of two great Asian countries, India and China. There has been no major famine in India since independence and democratization, in contrast, the largest famine of twentieth century occurred in a communist country, China, during the Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1961. Dre’ze & Sen (1989) argued that this is one of the positive aspects of Indian democracy.
Gita Sen (1992) then identified the three preconditions for the prevention of famine as representation, social need and accountability. Accordingly, all these factors are related to the adversarial democracy and the accountability of the government.

According to the Sixth World Food Survey estimated by the UN Food and Agricultural organization in 1996, there has been a rapid decline in hunger in East and South-east Asia between 1970s and 1990s, the latter decade is the period that third wave democratization occurred in this region in general.

In the case of healthcare and diseases, a comparison of Sri Lanka and Brazil reveals the role of democratization. Sri Lanka has had a long history of democracy and Brazil has had some military dictatorship interventions. That leads to the double under-five mortality rates in Brazil rather than Sri Lanka according to the World Bank data in 1998. (Parker & Wilson, 2000, pp.95) It clearly shows the degree of political matters in determining the health policy and service delivery.

Before analyzing the role of democratization in the issues of unemployment, it is important to identify its dimensions. Apparently, there are two significant dimensions occurred, i.e. economic and social and culture. The economic dimension relates to the macro and micro economic policies while the latter relates to social exclusion, gender differences and demographic forces. Wield and Chataway (2000) argued that the multidimensional causes of unemployment and poverty lie at the heart of the social exclusion concept which concerns the issues of inhabiting people from taking employment or making a living. (Wield and Chataway, 2000, pp.121) These include human rights, legal and civic rights and democratic rights, human and social/ capital resources, state provision and common property resources and family and community support. Undoubtedly, all these issues are related to the success of democratic consolidation.

Over the years, with the combinations of the environmental issues, sustainable development has become the dominant concept at a global level. Woodhouse (2000) defined ‘sustainable development’ as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (Woodhouse, 2000, pp.158) It has seen by different kinds of views, however, aid agencies like the World Bank and others tried to insist that free markets were the only suitable economic mechanism for substantial development within global capitalism. Unambiguously, free markets are strongly associated with democratization that may lead to economic growth and social development (Potter, 2000, pp.375)

In addition, Bhalla (1997) analyzed the relationship between freedom and economic growth and social development by using data for over 90 countries. Two concepts of freedom were used-political and civil rights as measured in Gastil/Freedom House survey and economic freedom measured in terms of openness to international capital market, international good markets and domestic capital market and reached a robust conclusion as “more freedom is unambiguously good for both growth and social development” (Bhalla, 1987,pp.228). Leftwich (1993) also argued that good governance and liberal democracy are not simply desirable but essential conditions for development in all societies (Leftwich, 1993, pp.605).

In conclusion, it is obvious that there is a positive correlation between democratization and development. As democracy plays a significant role in all issues of development, the military regime of Burma who has refused the dialogue for the restoration of democracy and human rights should reconsider its shameful acts before making such a claim.

Khin Ma Ma Myo (UK)

18/02/2006

References
Bhalla, C.S. (1997) ‘Freedom and economic growth: a virtuous cycle?, in Hadenius, A. (ed.), Democracy’s Victory and Crisis, pp.195-241, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Dre’ze, J. & Sen, A. (1989) Hunger and Public Action, Clarendon Press, Oxford
Huntington, S.P. (1991) The Third Wave: Democratization in the late twentieth century, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Leftwich, A. (1993) ‘Governance, democracy and development in the Third World’, Third World quarterly, 14(3), pp.605-24
Potter, D (1997) ‘Explaining democratization’, in Potter, D., Goldblatt, D.,Kiloh,M. & Lewis,P.(eds), Democratization, ch.1,pp.1-40, polity press, Cambridge.
Potter, D (2000), ‘Democratization, Good Governance and Development’, in Allen, T. & Thomas, A. (eds), Poverty and Development into the 21st century, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Sen, G.(1992) ‘Social needs and public accountability: the case of Kerala’, in Wyuts, M., Mackintosh, M. & Hewitt,T. (eds), Development Policy and Public action, Oxford University Press, Oxford, with the Open University, Milton Kynes.
World Bank (1997b) World Development Report: the state in a changing world, Oxford University Press, New York.