Democracy and development | Acemyhomework Writers
INTRODUCTION
To what extent can it be argued that democracy is a precondition for bringing about development? This has been a classic question and has been debated upon by analysts and policy makers for several decades. The subject of the human development report of 2002 was ‘deepening democracy in a fragmented world’ which stated the importance of a working democracy to promote human development and safeguard the freedom and dignity of people. In this paper, the importance of democracy is analyzed from Amartya Sen’s view in contrast to Leftwich, who argues that the institutions of democracy and development are incompatible. The paper also draws attention to the standpoint of global institutions. Why do global actors, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) emphasize on a working democracy? Is it only the social and moral dimension or is there an economic dynamic behind it? Is the aid conditionality changing with the coming up of non-DAC donors like China? However, the paper concludes with an optimistic view on coordination between the new and old donors and that both political rights and economic rights are necessary to bring about development. As also pointed out by Amartya Sen, a working democracy is important to ensure the rights of people. DEFINING DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT Democracy has many forms and it is practiced differently depending on the historical and social context of a country. A formal set of institutions are required for the working of a democracy. These institutions are competitive political system with universal adult suffrage and regularly contested free and fair elections. In a liberal democracy, these electoral characteristics are supplemented, in general, by a wide range of institutionalized civil rights and liberties for citizens, freedom of expression, association and religion; the rule of law; individual rights and autonomy (Leftwich2005: 696). Hence democracies are considered more accountable because people have the power to choose their leaders by exercising their voting rights. The Human Development Report 2002 stated that spread of democracy would promote human development and safeguard the freedom and dignity of people (HDR2002: 1). From the human development perspective, good governance is democratic governance.
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