7

Participation and Democracy

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Participation and Democracy
Page 2: Participation and Democracy

INTRODUCTION:The writer Joseph Stiglitz in the chapter “Participation and Development: Perspectives from the comprehensive development paradigm” discusses the importance of participatory processes for development. Participatory processes not only include processes involved at the government level but it also includes the processes at the local and provincial level. He also discusses the relationship between the economic and social development. Both economic and social development is interlinked. Economic development is referred to the increase in per capita income which in turn is believed to be helpful for improving education and better health. While social development is referred to as the ability of the societies to resolve their conflicts peacefully.

Social development promotes economic development. Domestic and foreign businesses will not dare invest in a country which is characterized by crime, corruption and violence all of which are the symptoms of low level of social development. This leads to slow growth and development. Unemployment gives rise to social ills such as crime. These social ills can be eradicated by economic development which promotes social development by improving education, health and employment opportunities and it leads to social development.

Throughout the chapter, the writer has emphasized the importance of participation in order to achieve development because when policies are made at the governmental level, public are the ones who are affected from those policies. If we want to have policies that have long lasting affect, we will have to listen to the people who are going to be affected by the policies. Participation is necessary for an effective society transformation. The more the people will have a say in decision making process, the more likely the development projects will be successful. The writer also stresses the importance of knowledge economy which can be provided by the educated citizenry. Knowledge economy plays a crucial role in making the development projects successful.

Openness, consensus building and participatory processes are the key ingredients of development that are important for both economic and social development. Open dialogue creates a sense of community. Without open dialogue there will always be suspicion regarding the decisions made. Consensus building builds the commitment to work among the people and provides the necessary efforts to make the projects successful. Knowledge economy provides access to the information where growth is dependent on the information rather than means of production.

Development requires a change in the mindset and that change can come from within not from outside. Open, transparent and participatory processes are essential for change in the mindset. These processes ensure that the concerns of the people are not only heard but also addressed.

We are convinced by this argument that participation of people in decision making at both local and government level. Without participation the policies will be ineffective and it will have negative impacts and can cause instability in the country. Instability hampers both social and economic development.

Page 3: Participation and Democracy

ANALYSIS:The earlier development paradigm focused on economic or allocation issues. According to this paradigm, if the supply of capital will be increased and the efficiency of resource allocation improved, it will lead to growth. This argument was also given by Przeworski. According to him, resources are better allocated in a democratic system that fosters growth. As a result, it also ensures the security of property rights that leads to higher level of investment and growth. While the present development paradigm says that development requires a change in the mindset. This change can come from within not from outside. In order to ensure that it reaches deep down in a society is through participatory processes. In broader sense, participatory processes refer to the processes used at local, provincial, at workplace and in capital market. We have to involve the people in the decision making processes whom we are supposed to serve. The government that engages in secrecy without taking into account the concerns of the people weakens accountability and quality of decision making.

According to Joseph, if we want to achieve development, we will have to encourage participation of the public. Participation builds consensus and it leads to effectiveness in decision making. It brings useful information for the projects which outside agencies are unlikely to have. When we build a consensus and adopt a policy, it is more likely to survive the variations in the political process. According to Przeworski, democracy encourages participation and freedom of speech. People are included in the decision making processes which then improves transparency and accountability. In turn it leads to development.

Adam Przeworski says there is a correlation between democracy and development. Two hypotheses could explain this: H1 ("emerge"): either development causes democracy to emerge (endogenously), or H2 ("survive") democracy emerges exogenously and development simply helps it to survive. H2 wins. But Joseph Stiglitz has focused on participatory processes and democracy ensures that processes. And it evident that democracy survives when they encourage participatory processes and economic development is achieved.

The absence of rule of law and transparency weakens the economy and participatory processes. Democracy ensures the rule of law and it promotes participatory processes which lead to better transparency and accountability and in dictatorship it is vice versa. Democracy takes people consent while making policies and they are much effective and have long term impacts.

Development in terms of social economic is inevitable if participation of people is high in policy making and implementation. Contemporary scholars believe that democracy ensures the participatory processes at large and whereas the traditional belief was that more capital investment will lead to development. They have ignored the social processes. The relationship between democracy and development has been long debated. There was belief that there is a tradeoff between democracy and growth. The best example is of Soviet Union, it had grown faster than the countries of the west, but in order to achieve economic growth they have discard the basic rights of people.

There is a tradeoff between basic rights and economic growth in authoritarian regimes; they gain economic growth at the expense of the rights of the people, whereas democracy ensures

Page 4: Participation and Democracy

the rights of people. But according to Adam przeworski there is no trade off between democracy and development. Democracy ensures the protection of public interest and honor popular inspirations. The economic development is not sustainable in authoritarian regimes, they may have economic growth but itself is encounter for the death of that regime. Concept of development to incorporate general well-being of the population at large, including some basic civil and political freedoms, a democracy which ensures these freedoms, it is more conducive to development on these counts than a non-democratic regime.

Democracy and participatory processes are more fragile, we have seen high levels of social disorder that calls for restoration of law and order without which individuals cannot live and work together.

Development is being viewed as economic development, the increase in per capita GDP. One of the key factors to differentiate less developed countries and developed ones is per capita income. Adam Przeworski says poor countries tend to be authoritarian regimes and wealthy countries have democratic regimes. He gives two reasons why the democracy is related to level of economic development. Democracies may be more likely to emerge as countries develop economically. Second reason democracy may be more likely to survive in developed countries.

Adam przeworski says that there is no obvious link between democracy and the average level of economic growth. Democratic countries grow on the average at the same rate as the non-democratic ones. What is striking is that policies and economic outcomes are much more volatile in dictatorships. Some dictatorships generate economic miracles but many end up in disasters. Moreover, democracy promotes several aspects of social welfare, notably higher wages, more reliable social insurance policies, and better conditions for women.

What we have seen is democracy exists when parties, including the incumbent governments, obey the results of competitive elections. Obeying this rule is what makes democracy. But democracy should not be idealized: laws are routinely violated, including by governments, in most really existing democracies, including the United States.

Joseph Stiglitz idea of formulating development policy; in these areas education, health, better communication, good governance and rule of law and such policy can result in social and economic development. Democratic regimes are more likely to have policies which may benefit people at large. Whereas Adam Przeworski says political regimes have no effect on economic growth. Political stability can ensure economic development. Any system of political institution promotes development as long it maintains political order.

Pakistan has lagged behind in the pace of development because it has seen many civilian and military dictators in its 60 years since independence. During the reign of dictators the rights of people such as right to information, right to freedom and so on, were not given.

CONCLUSION:It is very difficult to identify that does democracy promotes growth or does growth promotes democracy? Participatory processes helps in making effective decisions and if people believe that they have meaningful participation in decisions that are affecting them, they will be more willing to accept those changes. Open dialogue through free and unbiased media, is essential

Page 5: Participation and Democracy

for development of this sense of community. If policies are designed to address the problems of masses then they will actively participate and both social and economic development will be achieved. The foremost important thing to achieve development is all about laws and its implementation. Such laws and policies should not be made from which a special group or particular segment of society is benefitted. Many countries have been slow to grant basic rights that are believed to be so necessary for an effective participatory system, such as right to free speech, right to information, right to freedom, right to press. There are some special problems for democracy and development when the groups that get more easily mobilized are not interest groups familiar from the Western theories of democracy, but are more in the nature of sectarian or ethnic groups.The author has stressed on the importance of mobilization of people and promotion of an active civil society to have sustainable economic policies and that results in development transformation. In this paper we have tried to understand the multi-dimensional process by which democracy tends to affect the pace and pattern of development. We are optimistic for the long-run healing powers of democracy. Only democracy—having the capacity to question itself -- also has the capacity to correct its own mistakes.”