Exam Flashcards
Why should we promote democracy?
Depends on what theory you want to pick
- Theory of democratic peace
- Liberal democracy
- democracies almost never launch wars against each other
- Democracies are cooperative schemes
- improve living conditions
- Democracies look for the prosperity of people (moral sense of agency like amarta sen talks about)
- Democracies are constructive and instinctively good because they don’t want war allowing more resoucres to go to development - Democracy for a participatory account of the development (Amartya Sen)
- Democracy is required for the good/participatory development
- PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT: multilateral development which depends on the participation of people, therefore, they need their freedom
- Emphasizes the exchange of ideas
- Mandatory duties for all (if people make decisions they feel responsible to accept the decisions)
- acknowledges identity and cultural differences - Democracy and peoples property
(A Canadian perspective)
-The absence of democracy results in global political instability (resulting in unstable economies)
-By having more unstable nations in the world it threatens Canadian foreign policy and security (to be safe and secure Canada need to
-The least costly and most effective contribution the country can make to resisting global instability
-By upholding global values (human rights, equality) we protect out democracy at home
Three incentives that come with the Canadian perspective promoting democracy
- Moral incentive: must promote because out of the process we can establish better norms
- Eco liberal: gain something positive for the nation (new markets)
- Realistic: Secure country is important therefore by promoting democracy we reduce risk
Questions for democracy
Why do democracies sometimes support authoritarian regimes? (Example Canada and Philippines )
Why didn’t we relate our developmental programs to democracy?
Critical perspective of democracy
- Democracy is a vague/ contentious conception
- Democracies might be politically less stable if not articulated properly
- It is used by political ideologies for different purposes
Idealistic perspective Vs. Realistic position READING
Idealistic perspective:
- supporting democracy abroad
- Calculating state long-term strategic interest
Realistic position: Be prudent (morally responsible)
- Be cautious of promoting democracy abroad
- Immediate risk (instability and more violence in the short term)
- It is a matter of calculative gains
Policy Options
- Do not promote democracy abroad
- Passive demonstration (a leveling of the country, when people have = power to the elites) and diffusive effects
- rely on the power of one’s self - Support external democratization processes more proactively, but still cautiously and selectively trying to control and if possible eliminate the inherent risks
- Active: active in the condition set
- Proactive: a new setting of how to be active - Supporting democracy abroad openly and forcefully, despite the associated risks
Canada’s support of democracy for development
1st Phase: Mid 1980’s
- Charter of rights and freedoms
- The government of Canada policy for CIDA on Human Rigths, democratization and Good Governance
- NGO and Advocacy groups plans in developing countries
2nd Phase: 2004 with Axworthy’s plan for democratization
- Canadain Democracy Institute: countries support for democracy abroad
- Canadain corporations: responsibility for democracy abroad
- A move towards a new and non-biased democracy promotion agency
3rd Phase: after the conservative party won a majority in the federal election of 2011
- Democracy was subordinated to Canada’s foreign policy
- Canada would stand by its friends (most notably Israel)
- Countries violating Canada’s foreign policy objectives will be punished
- Canada’s NGO’s must fully comply with the goverments
What is Canada’s model for democracy
- Right based approach (look at the article)
- Research-based
- Autonomy of agency
- local leadership and accountability
What are emerging Market economies
- Example of them BRICS
- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa
BETTER ANSWER
What are the economies mixing?
They mix both the Liberal capitalist approach and the socialist model creating a collaboration between state and market
What are the characteristics of EME
- They benifit from the globalization of information technology (also like globalization in general)
- Progressing towards becoming an advanced economy but they do not have strict standards and the level of market efficiency. (Most do not take a multilateral approach to development so they are behind when it comes to human development)
- Have physical financial infrastructure including banks, stock exchange, etc.
- High GDP: attractive for foreign investment
- achieving higher living standards
Reasons for the growth of EME’s
- They are politically stable which makes it attractive for investors but that does not mean they are free
- Encouraging Entrepreneurship
- Industries strictly targeted for economic growth
- Incentives for people to save so that they create a new pool of wealth and create further investments
- Improved infrastructure
- privatization of state-owned enterprises
What EME’s did for economic growth?
- From ISI to EOI
- The objective for import substitution Industrialization was to create independence and control over the economy “don’t import what we don’t need”
- ISI failed becuase
1. high economic and social cost
2. The state ownership created inefficiency in economic institutions
3. limited market within the country
4. Widespread corruption
5. agriculture was neglected which created more food dependency
- International trade liberalization
- After WW2 people were thinking about what the new normative order would be
- International peace and security also depend on trade and the liberalization of trade.
- enhancement of markets provided good to underdeveloped countries aswell
- The maturity of the private sector
- foreign investment is very important to grow
- When the 2008 crisis happened China and India took advantage and absorbed a lot of the foreign investment flow
Asain Miracle
2 theories
Accumulation theory: the role of capital investment (liberals took credit
Assimilation theory: Involvement of entrepreneurship innovations, technology, education, labor (social idea)
Economic indicators of EME’s
South asia
- fastests growing economies but it is uneven
- China, India
Latin America
- The lower pace in economic growth
- Brazil, Mexico
Eastern European
- Higher per capital income
- Poland
HDI in EME’s
Good progress in a lot of EME’s but it is uneven
Solution?
- More state intervention for human development
- Active welfare system
- Access to trade and innovations
Middle-income Trap
EME’s make a lot of money off of cheap labour but as there is increased pressure for good, more labour needs to get hired and as more labour gets hired they want higher wages which brings up the price of goods which makes them less competitive in the global market
Solution
- technological advances to replace labour
- encouraging participation of production forces in determining the way of the market
- increase property rights (niave bc property rights are controlled by leading capitalists of the world)
- strengthen labour unions which is also unlikely bc a lot of EME’s are not democracies
Issues with inequality
-The rise in income does not mean that it was distributed evenly
Solution
- State intervention to provide social security or providing food rations
- Balancing economic growth and environmental sustainability
What is the ultimate goal of development?
- It is to enlarge peoples choices
- peoples capability depends on the enjoyment of their fundamental rights and freedoms
What are Human Rights?
-The right stated in the Un charter of human rights
- First, we had the Universal Declaration of Human rights (1948) but that was empty of legal obligation
- International covenant on civil and political rights (1966) which was more legalized
- UN declaration on the rights to development which confirmed that countries have a right to develop themselves (1986)
- Vienna declaration and program of action which stated that all human rights must be respected (1993)