Countries in the developing world
Countries in the developing world are frequently associated with issues such as a low Human Development Index, a low level of industrialization, and a low Gross Domestic Product per capita, among many other characteristics. However, leadership mechanisms appear to paint a picture of developing countries as well. While developed countries appear to be increasing their adoption of democracy through increased participation of their people in the selection of their leaders, many developing countries appear to be failing to adhere to democratic governance principles as they should. The developing nations portray struggles with the adoption of the rule of democracy with lower involvements of fostering institutions in the performance of the critical management role in the society. While many developing nations are attempting to install democratic process in the management of their operations, many countries from the Middle East and North Africa are trailing in that segment. Many leadership from the Middle East and North Africa countries are hugely hereditary absolute monarchs or excessive powerful presidents whose powers have no possible checks and balances as required for a democratic circumstance. This research explains the application of democracy and why many nations in the developing world always score relatively low in the democracy rating.
Problem statement
This research paper evaluates theories of democratization as far as developing countries are concerned and assesses the challenges of democracy, especially in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
Literature review
Democratic governance has several distinctive features that distinguish it from other forms of leadership model in the society. Democratic systems always gain support out of popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty symbolizes the rule of the people, and it harbors multiple other characteristics. The leaders of democratic nations emerge out of competitive elections and are allowed to form governments. The quality of the election is also a key factor in measuring the level of democracy of a country. Quite commonly, issues regarding influence on the people through other forms apart from the use of an elaborate manifesto may negatively hamper democracy. Some of the common tools invested in manipulating people's wishes are money, harassment of opponents and manipulation of electoral agencies which true democracy demands that electoral agency which is the referee should always maintain a neutral position.
The election should be conducted in a free and fair manner, and people should participate in their country's political discourse. Without the participation of people in the selection of the leaders, then democracy of such countries are questionable. Voter education is essential, and the presence of high-quality information should be accessible by all participants in the elections. People should make a decision based on the information they have regarding their proposed leaders and not based on other influences such as bribes, compulsions, and other biases or favors. Each aspiring leader is always accorded sufficient time to address the people and educate them regarding his or her manifesto. After democratic elections, the winner emerges based on the majority of the voter. The Government runs on policies that exhibit the will of the people, and the government policies should trigger effective management of the scarce to the benefit of the country's populations. Such government is obliged to deliver on their promises based on their manifesto. Equally, a democratic government must exercise political equality indicating that every citizen should be treated with the same equal measure of the law regardless of the social position a person holds in society.
The government must also treat the populace with equality and parity without favoring those groups who voted for it. The government has an obligation to protect its citizens. Every citizen has Political liberty in the selection of government and leaders. Such rights must always remain safeguarded against any quarter in the society that might wish to forfeit them. Democratic systems are even distinguished through the approval of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to congregate amongst other critical rights in the society. Operation within established and predetermined laws is an essential part of democracy whereby people undergo their actions in respect of the law without fear of intimidation by other powerful quarters in the society.
While the history of democracy is traceable to time immemorial, it is a new thing to many developing nations. Many societies practiced absolute monarchy several centuries in the past. An absolute monarchy refers to a leadership framework whereby the ruler has ultimate authority, and such authority is rarely limited to any form of written laws, legislation, and even custom. However, through societal insistence, rebellion, and activism many western nations have adopted democratic societies even if some monarchs have not been fully disbanded, their influence on power has been essentially diminished to provide a harmonious society.
Currently, the largest number of absolute monarchs is existent in the Middle East and North Africa. Some of the best examples are the Brunei, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Apart from the absolute monarch nations, there are multiple other nations which have multiple issues regarding their maintenance of democracy. Unfortunate repression of democracy is one of the issues that triggered the Arab spring which commenced in Tunisia December 2010. The emergence of Arab spring included a revolutionary upsurge of combined violent and non-violent protests, coups and propagated civil wars in the affected nations. From Tunisia, the upsurge swiftly spread thunderously to around five nations which included Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, and Bahrain. Amongst the five nations, some governments were overthrown while others degenerated into endless chaos. Prolonged street marches happened in Morocco, Iraq, and several another Arab world while minor protests occurred in Djibouti and Mauritania and multiple other nations.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index which rated around 167 countries based on 60 indicators of democracy, virtually all the countries in the Middle East and North Africa scored between 0 and 4 which places them at the authoritarian rule bracket. The rating also informs the basic reason for the emergence of the Arab Uprisings. While the Arab Uprisings can be attributed to several other factors, all the factors are related to poor leadership which is even attributable to the poor adoption of democracy or no democracy at all. Youths frustrated by issues such as heightened poverty and unemployment, authoritarian control and debilitating corruption levels in the countries ignited the protests.
The governments in the Middle East and North Africa have always faced criticism from the people, especially on the dehumanizing economic conditions exhibited in the nations. Such governments have laid higher priority on other issues apart from trying to alleviate devastating poverty and unemployment of the people. The leaderships also misuse the resources of the countries in following their personal interest. The countries are hugely known for the production of oil whose income the unquestionable monarchs or presidents use lavishly.
The key uniting feature of leadership between the nations in this region is authoritarian regimes. For instance, the Ben Ali from Tunisia, Mubarak from Egypt, Gadhafi from Libya, and many other former leaders of the Middle East and North Africa regions amassed unquestionable power and conducted multiple human rights cases of abuse on their people. The leaders consolidated massive power in their control and rarely had any considerable opposition to check their rule. Each of the leaders had distinctive levels of undertaking great human rights violations. They had spies close to their control who undertook serious monitoring of every action in the society, and people who were viewed as critics were not lucky at all. They carried close control of social media and internet use. It is unfortunate that countries with poor democracy scores also had a high level of corrupt activities running in their systems. Frustration with corruption amongst the people of the Middle East and North Africa areas was another cause of the insurgency of the people. Leaders such as Ben Ali of Tunisia and Gaddafi of Libya acquired massive wealth to the level of being billionaires through corrupt trading with the government and even through the misappropriation of public resources.
Social Media came out as a critical tool in activating rebellion by people who responded through heightened demonstrations, riots, and even other taking arms to try to reclaim their country through battles. Social media allowed for the spreading of various contents such as politically oriented messages and also outlined logistical related messages, for instance, where actions were to happen. The social media provided a common platform whereby the oppressed people related to the challenges they faced in the regimes thus enabling the creation of brotherliness in time of fighting oppressive regimes.
A description and evaluation of research findings
The research findings are that democratization is a process that grows constantly through the involvement of people in running their affairs. The finding also notes many leaders in the developing world have adopted a mechanism to stay in power forever and they either perform sham elections or adamantly call for constitutional changes, for instance, single-party systems which guarantee them the endless leadership for countries. However, citizens from such poorly run countries always resist even if it comes late, but such governments are always overthrown by the people, military, or through bloodless coups. Despite the Middle East and North Africa being closer to the western region as compared to many other Asian, American, or other African nations, they have chosen to neglect democracy practiced in western nations but instead support dictatorial or absolute power which is relatable to an ancient form of leadership. Some of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa operate under stringent adherence to discriminative Sharia laws.
This research also found out that overthrowing a democratically elected government leads to prolonged instability of nations in which various militia groups may take charge and insecurity may even widen. Implementation of democratic reforms is complex due to the greedy nature of human beings. Many leaders are more aligned towards illegally acquiring power and using the power to acquire wealth, and later it is hard to get out of power due to fear of being followed after to return the wealth that they acquired illegally. True democracy honors the will of the people, and institutions established within democratic grounds are aimed at assisting in the running of the democratic nation. While many leaders in the developing world aim at crushing the opposition parties which in most cases are normally well facilitated to counter-check the government, they forget the role of power of the people. People naturally have avenues for calling for changes, especially when cornered with inflation of the economy. According to the Democracy Index of 2016, nearly half of the globe's nations are acknowledged as democracies to certain levels, but the report lists only 19 fully recognized democracies which are a reduction from some 20 nations recorded in 2015. According to this statistics, it is arguable that countries may rise to great democratic standards and may also fall in the ranking, especially when power changes hands. Issues such as reduced trust level may cause a recession in democracy rating.
Summary of research findings
In brief, this research finding established that while many developing nations are working hard to achieve a better rating of democracy globally, many countries in the Middle East and North Africa have considerably huge amounts of reforms to undertake. Believing that western democracies rejected powerful monarchs several centuries ago, the countries in the Middle East and North Africa will have to work much harder to stop such kinds of leadership in their land. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, and many other nations still have constitutional roles, but they are rarely in control of people's wishes. They are not all-powerful beings who dictate their countries. True democracy is only attainable through the inclusive participation of people and the establishment of autonomous institutions operating on properly structured and unbiased laws of the people. It is also notable that developing countries whose founding fathers established transparency, proper institution are gaining much progress in democracy as compared to nations whose founding fathers clung on power.
Bibliography
Ghannam, Jeffrey. “Social Media in the Arab World: Leading up to the Uprisings of 2011.” Center for international media assistance 3 (2011): 19-34.
Rane, Halim, and Sumra Salem. “Social media, social movements and the diffusion of ideas in the Arab uprisings.” Journal of international communication 18, no. 1 (2012): 97- 111.
Bollen, Kenneth A. “Political democracy: Conceptual and measurement traps.” Studies in Comparative International Development (SCID) 25, no. 1 (2017): 7-24.
Major, J. Russell. From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings, Nobles, and Estates. JHU Press, 2013.
Yom, Sean L., and F. Gregory Gause III. “Resilient royals: How Arab monarchies hang on.” Journal of Democracy 23, no. 4 (2012): 74-88.
Barany, Zoltan. “Unrest and state response in Arab monarchies.” Mediterranean Quarterly 24, no. 2 (2013): 5-38.
Unit, Economist Intelligence, and Great Britain. Democracy index 2016: Democracy under stress. Economist Intelligence Unit, 2011.
