GP- Power & Developments: Liberal economics, the rule of law and democracy Flashcards
What did Francis Fukuyama predict at the end of the Cold War in 1991?
A: He predicted that liberal democracies would expand globally as this form of government became the default position for nation states.
Q: What specific phrase did Fukuyama use to describe his prediction?
A: He said, “what we may be witnessing is not the end of the Cold War but the end of history as such; that is, the end point of man’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy.”
Q: Did the spread of liberal economics, the rule of law, and democracy happen exactly as expected by liberal political theorists?
A: No, it did not proceed in quite the way that many liberal political theorists expected it would.
Q: What happened to the number of democracies after the Cold War?
A: The number of democracies dramatically increased.
Q: What specific groups embraced democracy after the Cold War?
A: Former members of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union.
Q: What recent event also increased EU membership?
A: Former Warsaw pact and Soviet Union members embracing democracy and joining the EU.
Q: What has happened to liberal economics, the rule of law, and democracy?
A: They have all come under unexpected pressure.
Q: What did the Global State of Democracy Initiative report in 2022?
A: “half of democratic governments around the world are in decline while authoritarian regimes are deepening their repression.”
Q: What happened to economic liberalism after the Cold War?
A: It led to the global triumph of economic liberalism, often known as the Washington Consensus.
Q: What is the Washington Consensus based on?
A: The free-market ideology.
Q: What are the two main points of the free-market ideology mentioned?
A: Removing restrictions to global trade, such as tariffs (trade liberalisation), and encouraging privatisation in domestic markets.
Q: What was the expected outcome of these policies?
A: Enhance world trade and increase global productivity.
Q: When did China join the WTO?
A: 2001.
Q: When did Russia join the WTO?
A: 2012.
Q: What were IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) founded on?
A: The free-market ideological basis.
Q: What specific idea about government involvement was part of the SAPs?
A: That government involvement in the economy should be restricted and barriers to trade lifted.
Q: What does China’s economic system provide?
A: A powerful alternative to the Washington Consensus.
Q: What happened with the WTO’s Doha round?
A: It failed.
Q: What was the reason for the failure of the Doha round?
A: The developed world being unprepared to open its markets to the agricultural products of the developing world.
Q: What did President Trump do regarding trade with China?
A: He imposed 25% tariffs on Chinese exports.
Q: What did Trump’s tariffs provoke?
A: An ongoing trade war.
Q: What is the rule of law?
A: The principle that nation states should have laws that equally apply to everyone so that no individual or institution is above the law.
Q: What is needed for the rule of law to operate?
A: A separation of powers so that the judiciary is independent of the legislature and the executive.
Q: How is the rule of law viewed in liberal democracies?
A: In liberal democracies the rule of law should be well protected.
Q: What happened in the UK in 2019?
A: The Supreme Court overturned Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament.
Q: What was Johnson’s reaction to the court’s decision?
A: He had to accept the judgment and Parliament was recalled.
Q: Where does the rule of law not operate?
A: Authoritarian states like Iran, China and Myanmar.
Q: Where else is the rule of law being challenged?
A: Semi-democratic states such as Turkey.
Q: What has happened to the rule of law in Russia?
A: It has been steadily eroded as it becomes more authoritarian.
Q: Where else has the rule of law been challenged within the EU?
A: EU member states such as Hungary and Poland.
Q: What did the Polish government do in 2021?
A: The Polish government was fined by the EU’s Court of Justice for interfering with the independence of the judiciary.
Q: What did a 2022 report by the European Parliament state about Hungary?
A: That under the rule of Viktor Orbán, Hungary had become an ‘electoral autocracy’.
Q: What has happened to the post-Cold War spread of democracy?
A: It has been reversed since the 2008 financial crash.
Q: What are liberal democracies increasingly turning to?
A: Populist leaders.
Q: What do populist leaders promise?
A: To protect them from the economic and social challenges of globalisation by limiting migration and putting up trade barriers.
Q: Give examples of populist leaders and movements mentioned.
A: The election of Donald Trump as US president in 2016 on a highly populist and illiberal platform and the increased Euroscepticism of the British Conservative Party.
Q: Where else are populist/nationalist parties showing strong showings?
A: Europe (France, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary and Poland) and globally (Brazil, India and Israel).
Q: What do these showings demonstrate?
A: That the values of liberal democracy are not necessarily secure.
Q: What else is threatening liberal democracy?
A: Disinformation and fake news spread by Russia, China and Iran.
Q: What happened after the 2020 US presidential election?
A: President Trump refused to concede defeat in the 2020 US presidential election and the subsequent storming of the US Capitol by his supporters.
Q: What does this event demonstrate?
A: The fragility of democracy.
Q: What further information is given about Trump and his supporters?
A: That many Americans still support his announcement that he will run again for the presidency in 2024.
Q: What happened in Brazil in 2023?
A: Supporters of the defeated Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro acted in a similar fashion to Trump supporters by storming the National Congress building in Brasilia.
Q: What does the Brazilian event further highlight?
A: The precariousness of liberal democratic values in an increasingly authoritarian world.
Q: What country is given as an example of a democratic country that gained independence from colonial rule?
A: Malaysia
