Abstract
Chapter four of Payne's book deals with the notion of democracy, which is a very old one. Democracy is a process, that is to say it is in constant evolution. Today, we can say that most developed countries are democratic, and each country has followed a different path to achieve democracy. The author explains that the level of economic development of the country is an important dimension to consider in the democratic process. However, we can notice that this is not totally true: poor countries like India are democratic, whereas countries like Saudi Arabia are not wealthy.
Globalization has played a role in spreading democracy and this is still the case today; the development of communications, trade, etc., and if we move back more in the past, we can observe that the spread of ideas during the British colonial empire emphasized democracy. Globalization has also prompted private property, which helps to generate wealth. Finally, we learn that democracy, which is often assimilated to American values, is far more complex than we think and forms of democracy differ across countries.
Democracy: Democracy has been observed in many parts of the globe. If we search its origins, we observe that democracy means "rule by the people". However, historically (but also nowadays in some countries not), all people are considered as equal. For example, slaves, but also women in certain countries do not have the same rights. In order to govern, citizens chose representatives who will represent them as well as they can. The American James Madison participated in the affirmation of the notion of the division of the three powers: legislative, executive and judicial; The aim was to ban the abuse of power by separating them.
Extract
[...] The author explains two different democratic models. First, the majoritarian model, which is the most widespread: the person or the party who obtains the most votes is elected, each citizen represents one vote. Second, we have the consensus model where majorities and minorities are represented, through a system of proportional representation. More importantly, we have "constitutional democracy" or more precisely "constitutional liberalism": a system where everybody is equal in the eyes of the law, where powers are limited; citizens elect representatives who are committed to respecting the fundamental rights of citizens (freedom of the press, of religion, but also freedom of assembly?). [...]
[...] All of the American attempts to promote democracy are linked to a deep-rooted ideology. The Cold War was an impediment to democratization because the USA, which was the most active in spreading democratic values, developed relationships with many undemocratic regimes. Another good point about democracies is that they are less likely, in principle, to fight each other. However, we can note that the United States faced many difficulties when trying spread democracy and its values, for several reasons, which were inadequate resources, the lack of domestic consensus, the difference between democratic values and other objectives and, finally the fact that some countries reject the American form of democracy. [...]
[...] According to Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, the ultimate step democracy has been taken when there is a total agreement on how the government is elected and how the decisions are made as well as when the executive, legislative and judicial powers are separated. Each country has achieved democracy in its own way, but in most cases the transition periods were characterized by national crises. In order to show its superiority to authoritarianism or totalitarianism, democracy needs to prove why it is better. [...]
[...] But after this victory, implementing democracy in this country proved more difficult than expected. Indeed, Iraq's ethnic, cultural and religious divisions created obstacles to the establishment of democracy. In consequence, financial and human costs were heavy. In addition, domestic support decreased which made the task all the more difficult. Nonetheless, in 2005, the US decided to hold an election, as a symbol of the beginning of democracy. In spite of this, in 2006, while Hamas had won the elections in Palestine, the violence in Iraq intensified. [...]
[...] Moreover, a generational change helped both countries to make the transition to democracy. Portugal To contribute to the growth of its commerce and its economy, Portugal attempted to attract foreign investment by reducing trade barriers and diminishing government regulations. However, on the other hand, the Portuguese had decided to keep their African colonies, while the other countries had granted independence to their own colonies, which led to an increase of Portugal's national budget devoted to military spending to counter the wars for independence of their colonies. [...]
