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The negative effects of democracy on development
The negative effects of democracy on development
An essay on democracy and development
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Why is it that some countries are classified as developed and others not? What is the criteria used to determine this? Some people believe that within the criteria to evaluate a country’s development, democracy and economic development must be taken into consideration, and that a link exists between them. Democracy can be defined as a form of government in which people choose their leaders by voting, it also implies equal rights and treatment. (Merriam Webster n.d.) By the other hand, economic development can be defined as the progress in an economy referring to an improvement of living standards, the adoption of new technologies and the transition form an agricultural to an industrial based economy. (Business Dictionary n.d.) Mexico and Russia have both different numerical indicators for democracy and economic development. According to Freedom House, Mexico has a 3.0 score in freedom, being 1=best, 7=worst. Based on this score, Mexico is considered to be a partly free country. What does this mean? A partly free country is characterized by some restrictions on political rights and ...
In the 19th century, Russia and Latin America responded similarly to industrialization in the formation of a growing middle class, in a “boom” in exports and new economic ties, in urbanization, and in similar acts of revolutionary disobedience against a dictator. Latin America, as a result of industrialization, created a small market for manufactured goods unlike Russia’s vast industrial market powered by foreign investments. Also, there were long-term effects to Russia’s revolution in which a socialist political party was created as a result of industrialization, unlike Latin America which was immobilized with regional conflicts and factionalism.
Mexico 1940-82: Higher Priority on Political Stability and Economic Growth than on Social Change Mexico’s political and economic stability from 1940-1982 can be well understood by looking at one of Sergio’s televisions. In Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman introduces the reader to Sergio Espinoza, a businessman who once employed some 700 workers to produce televisions, stereos and sound systems. His televisions’ high production costs, low quality, high prices and inaccessibility to the poor sketch a rough microcosm of the period from 1940-1982 by laying bare the inefficiencies of import substitution industrialization and the vast inequalities in Mexico. From 1940-82, economic growth and stability came at the expense of social justice and political pluralism. In particular, the Mexican campesinos, the backbone of the revolutionary Zapatista uprising, suffered from the economic development model and from the PRI’s ability to muzzle dissent.
Autocracy-A government system, where a person or group has total power over a country. The Russian autocrat at the time of the emancipation of the serfs was Alexander the Second who was assassinated.
In contemporary times, the rise of capitalism as a dominant economic trend and its ravenous demand to accumulate sources from new markets, has led to the idea of merging political and economic power into one, which is democratic capitalism or otherwise illustrated as “a system where markets allocate income according to efficiency while governments redistribute income according to political demand."(Iversen, 2006). The advancements mentioned earlier, have given ground for questions concerning the possible compatibility of the political ideology which is democracy and the economic ideology capitalism and how would they affect one another. This mergence could be examined in recent times, whereas in the past around the start of the nineteenth century it was considered as inappropriate and unlikely to happen. This paper aims to demonstrate to what degree are democracy and capitalism compatible, by examining the various areas of conflict of the two ideologies, how has capitalism affected the democratic system in the United States and does actually global capitalism have an impact on the developing countries democracies.
Mexico is country rich in history, tradition and culture; it is made up of 31 states and one federal district. It is the third largest country in Latin America and has the largest population with more than 100 million people; making it the home of more Spanish speakers than any other nation in the world. Many of Mexico’s rural areas are still inhabited by native people whose lifestyles mirror their ancestors. In addition, many pre-Columbian ruins still exist throughout Mexico, including the ancient city of Teotihuacán and the Mayan pyramids at Chichén, Itz, and Tulum. Throughout this article the basic life that an average person in Mexico goes through will be described. Also there will be deep detail on five major aspects that mold and describe Mexico. The first major topic is Tradition, culture, and identity where holidays, food, traditions, and religion are a day to day thing. Next is sports and recreation with baseball, Charreria, bullfighting, and soccer. Another main role for Mexico is there education. Through education there are many ups and downs throughout the educational system. Their overall rate of passing and grades is surprisingly high but the bumps and bruises come in when funds are mentioned. Public safety is main concern for the Mexican government. Law and Criminality causes major unrest and is very common in Mexico. The drug war is also a big factor that affects the health of natives which brings me to my last topic. Disease and Health is one of the BIGGEST concerns for Mexico. The main reason is because their high disease rate. With a high disease rate, many people die a day from things that could be prevented.
“The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives” (William James).
Mexico is a country that is led by a federation government which is democratic, representative, and republican based on presidential system since Constitution of 1917. The constitution has government in three levels: federal Union, state, and municipal governments. Officials at three levels are elected by voters. Mexico is fifth largest country in Americas and most populous country in world that speaks Spanish. Mexico is currently in a transformation to help the country grow both economically and politically with the current president taking extreme steps to move ahead.
While both the Mexican and Russian revolutions had similar end goals and the process in which they conducted their uprisings which started the peasant revolutions; the major differences lie in who started the revolutions and what political systems they adopted after their revolutions were over.
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
According to Stoner and McFaul when the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was defeated and voted out of office in 2000 this turnout allowed for a completion of a successful transition to democracy in Mexico (264). Although a transition did occur and Mexico does have solid democratic foundations, bewildering corruption, poor rule of law, and narco related violence have halted Mexican democratic consolidation.
Now days democracy has been establish in every Latin America country except Cuba, which is still a socialist state. It seemed that every other alternative form of government such as Marxism or Leninism has failed and been replaced by democracy. Furthermore it looks like people in Latin American really enjoy democracy and its’ benefits, as they also consider it to be the best form of government. After the failure of authoritarian leaders and the military intervene their lives, Latin American citizens wanted to change their system into a more fair and honest system, democracy. Democracy is usually defined as a system of honesty, equality, freedom of rights, though for Latin America countries it means gains, welfare and patronage. Latin American did not work the democratic system properly as it should be and different obstacles keep the system away from being consolidated. Democracy in Latin America still face serious problems in matters as grinding poverty, huge social gaps, corruption, drug dealing, inefficient governments and most importantly governments who promote and use military. The real question is why democracy actually failed even though democracy is what people want. Paraguay is a case of failure in transition democracy because of the corruption and other things that will be argued in this essay. Paraguay and Ecuador are considered to be the only countries that democratization did not achieve consolidation, in differ from Chilli and Central American.
Comparison Between MEDC and LEDC The comparisons between MEDC- More Economically Developed Country and LEDC-Less Economically Developed Country are many and varied but are mainly related to finance which gives the MEDC a higher standard of living for its occupants than those of the LEDC. Geographically most MEDC are situated in the northern hemisphere were as the LEDC are mostly in the southern hemisphere. Most MEDC are well advanced or have completed their development period for example the United Kingdom were as the LEDC are still in the early stages. Development of a country can be shown in a demographic transition model; this model consists of four stages.
However, on the other hand economists will link. development to developed/developing economies and will use GNP (Gross). National Product) and GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to measure it. These are examples of two definitions of development, however it needs. to be said that technological improvement and justice are also interrelated features, which need to be considered.
When looking through the topic of development, two drastically different ways to assess it arise. The majority of the western world looks at development in terms of per capita GNP. This means each country is evaluated on a level playing field, comparing the production of each country in economic value. Opposite this style of evaluation is that of the alternative view, which measures a country’s development on its ability to fulfill basic material and non-material needs. Cultural ties are strong in this case as most of the population does not produce for wealth but merely survival and tradition.
Development originated in the colonial era, when Europeans constructed domestic and imperial government systems and concentrated within the emerging national states as industrial system fueled by the products of colonial labor regimes (McMichael, p. 2). In the 19th century, development was understood philosophically as the improvement of humankind. European political elites interpreted development practically, as a way to socially engineer emerging national societies (McMichael, p. 3). In the post WWII, United State was concerned how to shape the future of the newly independent states in ways that would ensure that they would not be drawn into the communist Soviet bloc. Motivated by this concern, the United States enlisted its social scientists