On Democracy

I have been reading Fareed Zakaria's The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. This is quite an engrossing book on the state of democracies around the world. There is a very nice history of democracy, and I am now into the discussions about the different parts of the world that are democractic, or claim to be so, in one way or another. Still a long way to go...

I thought this topic was extremely relevant in today's India, where we have had another hung Parliament, and coalitions are being made and broken as I type. Quite sadly, it seems to me, that although much has been touted about the might of the Indian voter and the success of democracy, it is more possible that the Indian voters can say what they dont want, rather than say what they want. It seems to be easier to vote out governments that people are unhappy with, rather than get the people they want. This is, according to me, mostly to do with the multi party democracy we have. Coalition governments seem to have become so common over the last couple of decades. Political parties squabble over the portfolios each wants to own and support is given/taken (or threatened) based on who gets which control knob that drives part of the economy/country. Additionally, I strongly believe that democracy can only be effective if the population is educated about their rights and know how to make a rational choice. I am not sure how true this is of India. The common person (common as in, one of the 70% of India's population still living in villages) hardly knows about the issues being talked about - the last "hot" topic of debate here was on the question of Sonia becoming the PM. One of my friends told me that he was talking to a vegetable vendor near home, and he asked him "Who would you vote for?" The vendor replied "Sonia Gandhi of course. She is from the Gandhi family, they only can save us". So my friend asked him "Do you know she is from Italy?", and pat comes the reply "So what, Italy is just north of Delhi, how does that matter"? Point is - the common villager doesnt know what the media is talking about, or who they are really voting for.

No, I am not saying that democracy is a bad thing. In my opinion, democracy has always been the better alternative to run a government, as it comes closest to the generalization of specific human behavior. Over time, however, democracy has proved itself to be more dynamic than originally thought of, so much so that many have questioned the direction in which it is heading. Democracies around the world are facing a variety of challenges, from weakness of political parties in India to ethnic conflicts in Bosnia. One has to also realize that democracy cannot boast of being the sole propagator of economic progress. China, Singapore, and Malaysia are fine examples of strong economies running on alternative forms of government.

I saw this recently somewhere about the debate on whether Africa is ready for democracy or not - and I quote: "Democracy can only be effective if the population is educated about their rights and know how to make a rational choice. The fact that many African nations like Ethiopia, less than 2% of the population is educated raises a lot of questions about the effectiveness of democratic governance. Many have advocated the use of an absolute government bound by International agreements that will create a time bound framework for a transition to democracy. An illiterate and ill-informed electorate is bound to result in miscarriage of a representative government and sow the seed for yet another authoritarian form of government. Some countries are an exception like South Africa and Zimbabwe but the gains are marginal compared to the size of the continent. In today's post-communist world it is vital that the western world restrain from tunnel vision and consider local factors while formulating a 'perfect' democracy for Africa."

This is quite a challenge for the democracies of the world as we begin the 21st century.