Democracy in Indonesia
It seems to me that, if it is admitted that some day we may be forced to have some form of democracy in Siam, we must prepare ourselves gradually. We must learn and educate ourselves. We must learn and experiment so as to have a better idea of how a parliamentary government would work in Siam. We must try to educate people to be politically conscious, to realize their interests so they will not be misled by agitators of mere dreamers of Utopia. If we have a parliament, we must teach the people how to vote and elect representatives who will really have their interests at heart.
King Prachatipok of Siam, 1927
When the Berlin Wall fell the world thought with the assistance of a superpower that democratization could happen overnight. This has not proven true. On the contrary, what is usually prevailed is a false sense of democracy, an illiberal democracy. The road to democracy is slow and arduous. During the Dutch rule over what was later Indonesia and 22 years before its independence, King Prachatipok understood what was needed to democratize. Even so, since World War II Indonesia has not evolved into a liberal democracy and may be one of the countries furthest from democracy in of all Southeast Asia. What must happen? What has happened? Why has this happened? And what can the United States do to promote democracy and protect human rights in Indonesia?
Economic growth, which is necessary for the creation of a middle class, is the crucial first step toward democratization. For a democracy to be successful a country must have a certain economic and social structures. The consensus remains that there is no viable alternative to the market economy and that capitalist development is associated...
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In American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865 - 1900, H.W. Brands worked to write a book that illustrates the decades after the Civil War, focusing on Morgan and his fellow capitalists who effected a stunning transformation of American life. Brands focuses on the threat of capitalism in American democracy. The broader implications of focusing on capitalism in American democracy is the book becomes a frame work based on a contest between democracy and capitalism. He explains democracy depends on equality, whereas, capitalism depends on inequality (5). The constant changing of the classes as new technologies and ways of life arise affect the contest between democracy and capitalism.
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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 academic discourse concept reemerged in the 1980s in France and then spread in most European countries, Latin and North America, and Asia. In the beginning of 21st century the social economy is considered as a possibility for a “third way” of development after the collapse of state-controlled economies and the criticism of liberal economies.
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
Along with the advance and development of the society, capitalism is acquired by lots of countries among the world. But in the meantime, an increasing number of problems are brought to our attention, one of which is the pros and cons of capitalism. As to whether it is a blessing or a curse, people take different attitudes. Capitalism can be traced back to the Middle Ages in Europe, and this economic system has been contributing to the whole human race for centuries. However, people are attaching more importance to what capitalism is really doing to us, and they start wondering if another world is possible. My paper will focus on the question “Is capitalism good or evil”, and discuss different views about it.
Wiarda H. J. and Skelley E. M., 2005, Dilemmas of Democracy in Latin America: Crises and Opportunity, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc
Capitalism dominates the world today. Known as a system to create wealth, capitalism’s main purpose is to increase profits through land, labor and free market. It is a replacement of feudalism and slavery. It promises to provide equality and increases living standards through equal exchanges, technological innovations and mass productions. However, taking a look at the global economy today, one can clearly see the disparity between developed and developing countries, and the persistence of poverty throughout the world despite the existence of abundant wealth. This modern issue was predicted and explained a hundred and fifty years ago in Karl Marx’s Capital.
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Rodney’s argument is broken down into six chapters each consisting of several subdivisions and case studies supporting his principle argument. The first chapter works towards defining the terms of development and underdevelopment and argues the comparative nature of these terms; a country is only ‘underdeveloped’ by European standards. This chapter begins by tracing European development from its early stages of communalism through feudalism and finally capitalism. Then, he works towards developing an understanding of the term ‘underdevelopment’ and through an analysis of a variety of development indices what it constitutes in present day society: “In Niger, one doctor must do for 56, 140 people; in Tunisia one doctor for every 8,320 Tunisians”(18). The Marxist concept of inherent inequalities within the international capitalist system un...
Many factors can lead to the underdevelopment of a country. The most common sign of underdevelopment is that of a “Dual Economy”, this takes place when a “small modern elite and middle class make up about 20-30% of a country’...
Economic growth is the most effective instrument for reducing poverty and enhancing the quality of life in developing countries. The benefits brought about from economic growth is strong growth and business opportunities enhance incentives. This may lead to the rise of a strong and growing group of entrepreneurs, which should generate pressure for enhanced administration. Strong economic growth therefore advances human development, which in turn promotes economic growth. But, under different conditions, comparative rates of development can have altogether different consequences for neediness, the occupation prospects of poor people and more extensive pointers of human development. The extent to which growth decreases neediness depends on the extent to which the poor take an interest in the growth process and share in its returns (Riley, G.
These interactions exist when rulers are induced to develop by either international (external threats) or domestic factors (low natural-resource intensity) but at the same time they are facing privileged interests with strong bargaining power, i.e., when social wealth is highly concentrated. In such cases autocrats have the incentives to follow growth-enhancing policies but are not capable of enacting and implementing the most efficient strategy because rulers and technocrats are relatively weak relative to the dominant socioeconomic forces. In such a situation, rulers are not able to enforce contracts and establish impartial judicial systems, provide public goods for the poor, and remove existing price distortions. Moreover, it seems less likely that the dominant socioeconomic actors are internationally competitive at a country’s earlier stages of development. Dominant socioeconomic actors in such situations tend to be the highly asset-specificity sectors such as landlords or the highly protected import-substitution sectors. Implementing development-oriented policies typically requires another powerful actor to be able to break the existing equilibrium. For instance, initiating land reforms, shifting industrial policies from import substitution policy to export-oriented policy, eliminating non-performing loans, or removing