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United Nations Human Development Report and the Need for International Democratization
The 2002 United Nations Human Development Report (UNHDR) is the result of many years’ study of international human progress and development. As declared in the first page of the report, "[This report] is about how political power and institutions, formal and informal, national and international, shape human progress". This statement outlines the principal theme of power dynamics and fragmentation (politics) on varying levels, public and private, rich and poor, male and female, etc. - that runs consistently throughout the work, analyzing global trends of political participation and democracy.
According to the UNHDR, human development is politically determined, not only socially and economically so as represented in many studies. The Report operates under the basic assumption that the current world is more free and more just than ever before, but that democracy (including structures of political participation, economic justice, health and education, and peace and personal security) is necessary to improve human development and to protect the freedom and dignity of all people.
Although the Report is outwardly concerned with all democratic countries, industrialized or not, it is most significant to developing democracies where necessary reforms in human development have not yet been realized. As expressed by lead author, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, this year’s Report emphasizes the growing divisions between "those who prosper... and those who do not... between the powerful and the powerless, between those who welcome the new global economy and those who demand a different course."
At times it seems as though both sufficient coherence and evide...
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... whole the UNHDR does an thorough job at citing the important role of democratic governance with regard to human development, it also was blind to one major issue: the difference between theoretical and practical democracy. The successful theoretical democracy primarily discussed in this Report is undoubtedly not the same democracy practiced by 82 "fully democratic" countries in the world.Although the Report does make note of the susceptibility of many democratic institutions to corruption and inequality, the point was not made clear enough that these are two very separate and distinct forms of democracy. No matter the stylistic flaws, though, this Report truly creates a clear perspective on the state of current international human development, and rightfully emphasizes the immediate need for foreign aid, improved living standards, and international democratization.
Although he has come into his adolescence at the beginning of the book, however, growing up without a father still makes him somewhat pathetic without initiative. As the suitors show uncertainty about Odysseus’ return home, he presents no incentive and resolves to expel the suitors since he has long lost the faith that his father is still alive and will return home someday. As he said to Athena in book one:”Mother has always told me I’m his son, it’s true, but I am not so certain. Who, on his own, has ever really known who gave him life” and ” But now, no use, he’s died a wretched death. No comfort’s left for us…not even if someone, somewhere, says he’s coming home. The day of his return will never dawn.”(Homer 1.194 & 1.249) He does nothing but weep over his misfortune instead of standing out against them as a master in the house and protect his own estate while they are reveling in the palace by wasting his property. Not like his father, as one of the leaders in the Trojan war, who is not only adept in making decisions and giving orders to soldiers but als...
The Ghost of Hamlet’s father, was in way another brick of burden for Hamlet to carry, and did nothing but add confusion and anger to his already disturbed mind. After this I believe hamlets madness to grow, he his blinded by bitterness and anger towards his uncle so much that he loses sight compassion for life and love.
...nly country to force the race into slavery, they were just the last to free the slaves, and also had the worst treatment for the blacks. For years races were discriminated in the country of America, and it still this way today. Poets such as Langston Hughes, Lucille Clifton, and Colleen McElroy were evolutionary poets who wrote about their desire for freedom and equal treatment. Langston Hughes poems were more about the building up of the tension that existed in all of his people who were ready to start fighting for their freedom. Colleen McElroy wrote about how the blacks in America still were apart of there past because of the color of their skin and simply just because of where they were from. Lucille Clifton wrote about the desire for the recognition her race and all of the other races of America, besides the Whites, would finally be appreciated for their work.
To analyze Hughes’s poem thoroughly, by using Eliot’s argumentative essay, we must first identify the poem’s speaker and what is symbolic about the speaker? The title (“The Negro Speaks Of Rivers”) of the poem would hint off the speaker’s racial identity, as the word Negro represents the African-American race not only in a universal manner, but in it’s own individual sphere. T.S. Eliot’s essay, mentions that “every nation, every race, has not its own creative, but its own critical turn of mind”(549). In another sense, different societies have their own characteristics, however, with a racial mixture, shadowed elements can be formed. If one were to analyze in between the lines of Eliot’s essay and Hughes’s poem, he...
In the first four books of Homer’s The Odyssey, the character of Telemachus undergoes a dramatic evolution. When Homer first introduces him, he appears to be an unsophisticated youth, wallowing in self-pity. After the goddess Athena intervenes, he becomes, seemingly, a man of courage, strength, and resolve. On closer analysis, however, one remains to wonder if this transformation is genuine. The rapidity of his change in personality and the assistance he requires from the goddess at every stage in his journey suggests that he is not yet a hero in the mold of his father, the great Odysseus.
In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, the river stands as a symbol of endlessness, geographical awareness, and the epitome of the human soul. Hughes uses the literary elements of repetition and simile to paint the river as a symbol of timelessness. This is evident in the first two lines of the poem. Hughes introduces this timeless symbol, stating, “I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins” (Hughes 1-2). These opening lines of the poem identifies that the rivers Hughes is speaking about are older than the existence of human life. This indicates the rivers’ qualities of knowledge, permanence, and the ability to endure all. Humans associate “age” with these traits and the longevity of a river makes it a force to be reckoned with. The use of a simile in the line of the poem is to prompt the audience that this is truly a contrast between that ancient wisdom, strength, and determination of the river and the same qualities that characterize a human being. The imagery portrayed in the poem of blood flowing through human veins like a river flows ...
The diction of “ancient” (3) proves once more that Hughes is talking about the history and roots of African Americans. The word ancient itself means something that is decrepit, old, and primitive, clearly a word to be used when discussing a history and a journey. This word, which was repeated twice in the passage, emphasizes that there has been a long and difficult wait for equality for blacks. That although they have been around since “ancient” (3) times, since so long before, they still are fighting for racial equality.
...terate and powerless in various areas of their life. People need to be empowered by being resistant to these processes and participate in building viable economic and political alternatives. Their should be massive reforms on people’s basic needs and welfare and not on the policies that favor international capital. Global imperialism should be replaced with global democratic governance of the people, especially who are vulnerable to exploitation in the developing nations. Their should be social justice and a control of means of production, which can be achieved through democratic empowerment because globalization disempowers the people by displacing their productive forces. People should be given the right to make decisions on their own, and especially women who have proved through their ambition of working hard and contributing significantly to the countries GDP.
The poem “Negro” was written by Langston Hughes in 1958 where it was a time of African American development and the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Langston Hughes, as a first person narrator tells a story of what he has been through as a Negro, and the life he is proud to have had. He expresses his emotional experiences and makes the reader think about what exactly it was like to live his life during this time. By using specific words, this allows the reader to envision the different situations he has been put through. Starting off the poem with the statement “I am a Negro:” lets people know who he is, Hughes continues by saying, “ Black as the night is black, /Black like the depths of my Africa.” He identifies Africa as being his and is proud to be as dark as night, and as black as the depths of the heart of his country. Being proud of him self, heritage and culture is clearly shown in this first stanza.
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...
In his book Political Order and Political Decay, Francis Fukuyama proffers many compelling argument that support his overall push towards a domestic liberalism. One such argument is that the social mobilization of a given nation’s people (especially the middle class) is one of the primary causes for that nation’s development and success. We believe this argument falls short under examination from logical consistency and under evidence from counterexamples. In Saudi Arabia, we see a high amount of development (using the metrics of national wealth increase and foreign trade) but we see low social mobilization. Similarly, in many rural parts of South American countries, we see a vibrant culture and much work towards social betterment but these areas are not very developed. We will first break apart Fukuyama’s idea of social mobilization to see what exact role it has in development, then we will look at these counterexamples in greater detail to extract their application to our thesis, and finally we will examine the applications and
Inglehart(1997) states that 'Economic ,cultural and political change go together in coherent patterns that are changing the world in predictable ways '. . Inglehart(1997) establishes that economic development causes certain cultural alterations in society and these changes are the ones that eventually form democracy . Inglehart(1997) further explains about 'Postmodernization ' where democracy is more likely to survive, as opposed to the term 'Modernization ' where, for example, high industrialization led to a authoritarian rule as seen by Brezhnev 's rule of the USSR. This led to a belief that economic development alone was not adequate for democracy. Postmodernisation, according to Inglehart(1997) incorporates and reflects the changing necessities of humans in terms of governing politics, work, religion, family, gender roles and sexual behaviour. Inglehart(1997)therefore establishes that in explaining further about postmodernisation, the term displaces the world toward a more human society where there is room for more self-expression, individual autonomy and diversity which are for democracy. Gender roles are essential to the quality of democracy as democracy is based on the principle of equality and
In addition, he asserted that institutionalisation is a more important facet of political development, citing four sub-categories: adaptability, complexity, autonomy and coherence. If institutionalisation is rapidly outpaced by modernisation, specifically mobilisation and participation, the end is result is political decay rather than political development.
Why nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, is a captivating read for all college economic courses. Coauthored by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, they optimistically attempt to answer the tough question of why some nations are rich and others are poor through political economic theories. They lay it all out in the preface and first chapter. According to Acemoglu and Robinson, the everyday United States citizen obtains more wealth than the every day Mexican, sub-Saharan African, Ethiopian, Mali, Sierra Leonne and Peruvian citizen as well as some Asian countries. The authors strategically arranged each chapter in a way that the reader, whomever he or she is, could easily grasp the following concept. Extractive nations that have political leadership and financial inconsistencies within their institutions are the largest contributor to poverty and despair within most countries. It also states that countries with socioeconomic institutions that work ‘for the people and by the people’, or in other words, focus on the internal agenda of that
Pursuing the development man has forgotten some eternal values; he has shown selfish and self-centered attitude .In the modern society we see violence, prejudices, language crisis, racism, exploitation, and saturation, dishonor of human rights, gender bias, and frail family relationships. These are the common aspects we see in our society.