A Case for Consolidating Democracy

For many years, democracy was viewed as a luxury, not a necessity, next to urgent quests for development. Increasingly, however, scholars, policy analysts, and people themselves in many countries recognize that democracy is not only a critical human rights component which allows for the full protection of fundamental freedoms and human rights but also an important condition for development. It cannot be only a privilege of the rich.

Improvements in physical infrastructure, public health, and education are crucial to development. But they are not the most crucial factors. Indeed, no amount of spending or public investment can compensate for bad governance. Corrupt, wasteful, abusive, incompetent governance undermines basic economic development. Where governance is endemically bad, leaders do not use public resources effectively, nor is private sector growth allowed to prosper smoothly and efficiently. Such a situation can also seriously inhibit democracy.

While good governance and democracy are not synonymous, democracy helps foster good governance. Truly democratic elections can remove bad, corrupt or merely ineffectual leaders. Free and fair elections also provide an incentive for political leaders to govern more effectively in the public interest. A strong body of law and a system of effective checks and balances — with an independent judiciary and a network of counter-corruption, audit, and other oversight agencies — can deter abuse of power. A free press and civil society help to consolidate democratic institutions and processes, and can expose wrongdoing and hold government officials accountable before society and the law.

Building Stable Democracy

Democracies are consolidated where there is a widespread and deeply-ingrained commitment to the legitimacy of democracy among all major societal groups, and where major democratic institutions have such strength, depth, and predictability that there is no prospect of a breakdown of democracy. Many of the new democracies that have emerged in the past two decades have not yet reached this level of stability. The global quest for democracy has generated some important lessons for many new, developing democracies and also for seasoned democracies:

1. Human rights — including the right of citizens to choose their government in free, fair, and periodic elections — and the rule of law are ends in themselves. Yet even many electoral democracies fall seriously short of their obligations to foster and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of their citizens.
2. There is a strong association between the quality and the legitimacy of democracy in the mind of the public: citizen support for democracy is more robust and democracy is more stable when there is respect for individual liberties, a system of justice and accountability, and transparency in governmental decision-making.
3. Underlying this relationship is the strong connection between the quality of governance and the stability of democracy. Where democracy is restricted governance is poorer —- more corrupt, wasteful, incompetent, and unresponsive. This entrenches poverty, obstructs economic development, opens the country up to recurrent crises, and prevents effective use of international assistance.
4. The good governance that fosters development therefore requires not just representative democracy, but democracy that is transparent, accountable, bound by the rule of law, and provides protection for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Generic Problems of Democratic Governance

Since the mid-1990s, two global trends have been colliding. One trend has been the surprisingly robust and resilient wave of democratization, producing a record number of electoral democracies. The other trend has been a spreading democratic malaise in many parts of the world. Several generic problems of governance underlie this malaise and must be urgently confronted:

Weakness of the Rule of Law: The most urgent and pervasive obstacle is the weakness or, in some cases, decay of the rule of law. Widespread corruption undermines the legitimacy of government, alienates citizens from their leaders, and threatens political stability and economic development. The more endemic the problem of corruption, the more likely it is to be accompanied by other serious deficiencies in the rule of law: smuggling, drug trafficking, criminal violence, abuse of power, and human rights abuses.

In both newer and established democracies, political corruption scandals threaten to erode public faith in democracy and thereby to destabilize the entire system. This is particularly so where corruption is part of a more general syndrome involving the spread of organized crime with political connections, the misuse of executive and police powers to punish political opposition, and the politicization of key institutions of “horizontal accountability,” such as the judiciary, the audit agency, and even the electoral commission. It is necessary for political leaders to provide sufficient democratic commitment — the political will — to build or maintain institutions that constrain their own power.

An important ingredient in all democracies is the political will of the nation’s leaders to improve the quality of governance. At its most resilient, political will involves a broad consensus among ruling elites, across political parties and sectors of government, in favor of democratic and good governance reforms.

Attenuation of Civil Society and the Environment Conducive to Democracy: Particular attention must be focused on the need to preserve and consolidate the political, social and economic environments rendering the development of democracy possible, environments which are threatened by steady fragmentation of societies due to political and economic factors. We must pay attention to depreciation of the value of human person and it fundamental rights. We must also pay attention to the economic condition of persons, determined by ineffective economic political incompatible with the principles of sustained development. Many developments underlie the growing crisis of confidence in some countries in state institutions, in the democratic order, in political parties, in respect for the principles of constitutionally guaranteed justice as well as in mutual trust. These include:

• Greater questioning of the value of global free markets and political liberalism
• Irresponsible, unprofessional media, and
• Corrupt practices and inadequate mechanism to deal with corruption;
• The lack of transparency in decision-making processes.

In certain cases there has been the rise of bogus democracy, a façade democracy with a formally working representative system, periodic elections and the rule of law but where the major decisions are made behind the back of all representative bodies. The result is often the decreased civic engagement in public affairs and exclusion of democratically-oriented political figures. The withering of, and in many cases the absence of, democratic habits of citizens and politicians, combined with increased threats of terrorism or extremism, account for the fact that democratic institutions in many countries are seriously threatened. For all these reasons it is necessary to focus efforts on the promotion of a culture of democracy and strict observance of human rights, both civic and political, social, economic and cultural. They all constitute principal components of an environment conducive to democracy.

Economic Malaise as a Threat to Democracy: In many emerging democracies, economic reforms have not yet generated rapid, sustainable economic growth. This can cause the public to question the benefits of having an open, democratic system. There have been success stories in which rapid or modest growth has accompanied democratic development. However, in many new and troubled democracies, economic growth has not met public expectations, and large segments of the population remain in poverty. In some cases these lower than expected results are the result of a failure to control of corruption and a lack of genuine rule of law. If countries embrace growth-oriented policies and fiscal prudence and are open to privatizing previously state run enterprises they will likely attract adequate foreign investment and stimulate their own economic climate. Investors – foreign and domestic - are attracted to secure property rights and low transaction costs.

Transnational corporations have been accused of contributing to the atrophy of democratic institutions. They should be encouraged to cooperate in order to promote an environment conducive to the development of both democratic structures and a culture of democracy. A role of its own would be played by the promotion of the new UN Global Compact on Corporate Social Responsibility.

Managing Ethnic, Regional and Religious Differences: Cultural diversity is not an insurmountable obstacle to stable democracy. Countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe have learned to manage diversity through federalist arrangements to devolve power, assimilation of immigrants, and complex mixes of laws and customs designed to include, not exclude, those from different cultures. The problem arises when one ethnic or religious group seeks hegemony over others, or when some minorities perceive that they are being permanently and completely excluded from power, including any meaningful control of their own affairs. Identifying, then implementing, the kinds of policies and institutional arrangements by which minorities can be protected and all citizens can feel they have a stake and say in the political system helps secure stable democracy.

Media: In the era of information and television society, where media can contribute to the discourse on and development of democratic values, special attention must be paid to the primacy of the freedom of speech; in regard to common and direct access to the media. The development of an environment conducive to democracy and consolidation of democratic institutions is supported by professional, responsible and accurate media. It is indeed necessary to appreciate the role which public media have to play in this respect.

These three challenges of governance intensify and reinforce one another. Highly visible corruption accentuates the sense of injustice and grievance associated with poverty, unemployment, and economic hardship. Corruption has also been a major obstacle to the successful implementation of economic reforms, especially privatization. Poverty and economic stagnation reinforce the sense of discrimination and powerlessness that many religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous populations feel. Corruption aggravates societal conflict by raising the premium on control of the state and rendering politics a more desperate, zero-sum struggle for control of economic opportunity. The weakness of the rule of law makes it easier for leaders of different ethnic and sectarian groups to mobilize violence at the grassroots as part of their efforts to win power for themselves. It also facilitates electoral fraud and violence.

Underlying all of these problems in many countries is a lack of commitment to the rule of law, transparency and accountability. With the construction of effective institutions to control corruption and secure the rule of law, democracy can be stable and development can be sustainable.

Strategic Priorities for Consolidating Democratic Institutions

The political will for reform is the most important prerequisite for consolidating democracy. Consolidated established democracies, as well as international organizations, can provide invaluable assistance, experience, and guidance. International and regional organizations play a crucial role in promoting and supporting the development of democratic institutions. Reforms to improve and deepen democracy require leadership from within the country. As countries take steps to consolidate democracy, the following areas are priorities:

• controlling corruption and improving the entire apparatus of accountability, from the legal framework to the audit and counter-corruption agencies, and from free media to non-governmental organizations;
• strengthening the rule of law, not only through a trained and independent judiciary but also through functioning, more professional and ethical law enforcement bodies,
• strengthening and democratizing political parties, and deepening their roots in society;
• involving pro-democracy, development, and good-governance NGOs, as well as representative interest groups, in the design and implementation of reforms to deepen democracy; and
• developing stronger, more professional and capable states that are better able to manage their economies and respond to rising societal demands for better governance.

Conclusions

The past quarter century has seen a remarkable global transformation. Today, most countries are electoral democracies, and people in every part of the world want civil and political freedoms, both for their intrinsic worth and for the better society they can produce. Democracy is the best system for securing freedom, good governance, and a decent, humane society. But democratic electoral competition does not ensure these other important ends. That requires reform to deepen, strengthen, and consolidate democracy — to build a rule of law and a culture of governance in which public resources are used for the public good. Countries that cannot mobilize the will for reform face bleak prospects for political stability and economic development. However, democracies that prove serious about governance will attract the productive investment, increased international assistance, and societal support that will help them to prosper.