Could Dictatorships be a Better Option for Developing Countries?

We know that democracies are common among the economically urbanized countries and rare between the very deprived ones. The reason we scrutinize this pattern is not that democracies are more probable to emerge, as a result, of economic development but that they are to a large extent more possible to survive if they occur to emerge in most urbanized countries. The paths to democracy are diverse. Indeed, they appear to follow no unsurprising pattern. But once democracy is conventional, for whatever reasons, its endurance depends on a few, easily particular, factors.

Democracy has always been threatened by illiteracy. There are a few ways in which democracy has been threatened by illiteracy. These ways are, people forging a vote, not understanding instructions on medication, and traveling out to the streets. These three things are a huge problem for illiterates. In order to prevent illiteracy one must open themselves to the world and learn about democracy. As James Madison stated, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives” (Kozol 114).

Envision being limited in a world full of opportunities and advantages due to illiteracy. In this society, it is unfortunate that there are individuals who are illiterate, which ultimately affects their democratic lives. Many other citizens do not face this issue, and may not recognize the disadvantages that illiterates face. In Jonathan Kozol’s text, “The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society,” he discusses the various issues concerned with illiteracy, one of them being how it affects democracy. Democracy is a type of government where power, that involves human rights and values, is held by the people. According to Kozol’s text, illiteracy undermines democracy in the United States because people are oblivious of their right to equality,

     Democracy is defined as “A system of government in which ultimate political authority is vested in the People.” The Declaration’s

Pericles , a famous Greek statesman once wrote a document called the Funeral oration (document 3) in which he describes what a democracy. This is the form of government which was instated during the Ancient Greek civilizations and is instated in the (modern-day) the United States. Democracy is made for the majority and not the minority. It is not based on the few leading, rather everyone gets a voice in society. It gives

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Democracy is defined as a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. This definition is accurate in

In this article, ‘The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society’ by Jonathan Kozol. The author mentions that illiteracy in the United States has undermined its democracy. He explains the negative aspects that illiterate people have. He demands that since 60 million people in the U.S. are illiterate, about one third of the illiteracy could vote, and that is U.S. government is “the government is neither of, nor for, nor by, the people,” which is very basic meaning of democracy in the United States; whether government in U.S. they support this one third of illiterate when other two thirds of privilaged literate people advantage from all different kinds of chance informed from the ability to read the words. Then, he begins with various examples of problem

“In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme” - Aristotle. This quote lays out the main idea behind Democracy. The idea that the people deserve equality and freedom. Equality in race, colour and religion, and freedom of speech, and will, unless it is against the will of the majority of the people. Democracy endeavors to achieve a balance in freedom of an individual, whilst not violating the majority's will. Democracy was developed in Ancient Greece. The word itself comes from the greek term ‘demokratia’ (‘demos - the people’ and ‘kratos - rule’. Democracy was first used in the Greek state, Athens. Athens used a direct form of Democracy, as people knew each other. Nowadays, there are an abundant amount of countries that are ruled under democracy, such as New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, and Austria.

The right to vote, as discussed before, is not given to uneducated people. Citizens have to pass a literacy test in order to vote. “If even one third of the illiterates could vote, and read enough to do sufficient math to vote in their self-interest, Ronald Reagan would not likely have been chosen president” (Kozol 34). If all illiterates did have a say in government, it could make such a big difference that the votes could cause a different president to be elected. Uneducated people do not have enough knowledge to wisely decide which president is amendments are better, as they need to know how to read to stay updated with politics. “Millions of people cannot exercise their right to vote with a full knowledge of the facts because they cannot read or write.” (Illiteracy and Natural Rights.). Apart from voting, the childbirth rights are also sometimes taken from uneducated mothers. “Illiterate mothers . . . already have been cheated of the power to protect their progeny against the likelyhood of demolition” (Kozol 45). Uneducated mothers cannot properly take care of their child as they usually do not hae all the information on raising a baby. When the child grows up, an uneducated parent will not be able to help the child in schoolwork, leading the child to struggle in school. Although rights are taken from the uneducated society, they are taken for a reason that benefits the uneducated people in the long-term.

We must question to what extent democracy relies on external factors of stability in order to be accepted as legitimate. I would very much argue that the wealth and stable economy of each democratic country plays a large part in its citizens accepting democracy as a legitimate governmental system. Let us first look at the UK, Britain has always had a strong democratic nature to the country and relies on the electorate to vote for the MP’S in the House of Commons. However in late 2010 the London riots shocked the world and showed how the legitimacy of democracy relies on prosperity of the economic situation of a country and when this does not exist it creates a social backlash devaluing the legitimacy of the democracy. Similarly grease one of the oldest democracies in the world has also felt this effect and now the government there has all but collapsed all due the financial support of the democracy failing sending the country into mass chaos.

Democracy varies in every country depending on the type of government or regime they have. There is the liberal democracy, which is all about giving people their rights and liberties; everything is done through fair voting and electing. The people are aware of everything that happens in their government. Illiberal democracies are basically the same as liberal, but the people in power are more secretive of their activities, and there is less civil liberty. It is essentially a partial democracy. Now Authoritarian regimes designate any political system that concentrates power in the hands of one leader or a small elite. There are no free elections and very little regard for the law. Political institutions, social structures, and the democratic rule of law all affect liberal, illiberal, and authoritarian regimes democratic quality differently.

Theoretically, democracy is a stable form of government where power is in the hands of the people. In a democracy, people have the liberty to elect officials that best represent their interests, and political institutions exist as a result: Benjamin Constant argues in The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns that “true modern liberty is

Democracy is often touted as the greatest change that a country can go through in order to achieve better financial success and therefore a more prosperous life for its people, so it is important to know what influence democracy has on a country and it’s economic success. After exploring previous investigations between democracy and the economy, and creating an empirical research design to evaluate the relationship between the growth or decline of democracy and the economic well being of the country; the final crucial step is to analyze whether a relationship between the two exists. It is my hypothesis that in evaluating the data, it will

Along with historical evidences, contemporary studies have also appeared to support the argument that democracy can indeed promote economic growth. Rodrik (1999) has shown in his study that GDP per capita and democracy has a correlation of 2.48. Democracy here is measured with the “Freedom House measure of democracy” which ranges from 0 to 1 with 0 representing a complete totalitarian government and 1 representing a full representative democracy. The estimation of 0.28 is fairly significant since an increase in 0.1 point of the index leads to a prediction of an increase in 0.248% of growth rate. This increase in predicted growth is a result in the better economic freedom and rule of law that democracy can offer. This is also shown in Rodrik’s study that democracy is correlated with rule of law with a coefficient of 0.29, with the same definition of democracy and measures. This is supported by Barro’s study which has shown that there is a linear correlation between rule of law (measured by the political risk indicator for

Whether democracy means merely a term or just a question to be asked in interviews and exams or just a topic to be covered in text books of children??