At the end of the 20th century, when liberal democracy and free market capitalism were expected to drive global prosperity, the triumph of western social order was generally predicted. The void left by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing clash of civilizations actually motivated proponents of Western liberal democracy to scale up their outreach to former communist states and Muslim countries in the years that followed.
The western liberal democracy is largely predicated on the idea that democratic governance necessitates competition between people and groups for political power, with the party system serving as the most recognizable example. The completion can still be in place without the composition of any political party. Competitive democracies are always incapable to deal with new realities yet the western population continues to live in a state of denial regarding its anachronistic nature. And when concerns are raised regarding this, the focus is always on surface expressions rather than stressing on the structural causes. The issue of gridlock, the break down in civility and the spread of the political corruption has given rise to adversary democracy. These seeds are actually the deepest assumptions about social order and human nature which underlines political competition. And the very first of these assumptions is that human nature is competitive and selfish and the second assumption being the development of different types of interests amongst different groups of people.
Theoretically whenever there is excess or shortage of operations in the market economy, the democratic government should be able to remedy and regulate these. However, this practice of political competition makes that virtually impossible. Since it is a very expensive activity and getting more and more expensive day by day, both indirect and direct financial support is required for the same. This is the primary reason for the growing disparity of wealth between poor and the rich. This expanding income gap is a direct consequence of political economy and not market economy.
Conclusion:
While it is an accepted fact that no system of government is perfect and thus competitive democracy is the best solution possible. The corrupting influence of this money, the exclusion of the diverse perspectives, the inability of solving complex issues, the short term planning, the absence of cross boundary coordination, the rise of mean-spiritedness and incivility, the aggravation of the social divisions, the cultivation of disaffection are the reasons for the culmination of the system. This competitive democracy has actually turned out to be costly anachronism and it is not at all fine for the population to continue living in this state of denial. Human injustice cannot continue till eternity and similarly confusion and chaos cannot continue to reign amongst men and discord cannot continue to agitate the face of the society. While power and money continue to rule the political economy, we also need to come out of that and start looking at other factors which takes into consideration of quality over quantity. Let’s move on as history is just the beginning.
