Does Economic Development Cause Democratisation?

Module Code : FC 015 3T

Class/Group: Group 5

Module Title:Comparative Politics

Assessment Title:Essay

Assignment Title: Does economic development cause democratisation?  

Tutor Name:David Green

Student ID Number: 2288400

Date of Submission: 12th June 2017.

  Since the twentieth century, with the number of democratic states growing, the process of demoratisation and concept of democracy become a meaningful topic for political field. Although the majority of countries are not democratic, there are many countries generally stepping into ‘demoratisation’ , according to Hauss(2006:28) arrgued that could refers to a process of transformation of a country from non-democracy to democracy or a continuous adjustment to a further democracy (2006:28). In addition, Huntington(1991) focused on the factors that promote a country into democracy such as economy development, social or culture (1991). According to the Lipset(1957) stated that institutions would face more challenges on democracy as the economy developing in a country (1957). However, those theories are not completely suitable for all democratic coutries and the degree of democracy could be confirmed by various perspectives. Therefore, this essay will argue not only the economy development can promote the level of democracy, other factors such as religion, historical culture and diversification political system also relate with the democracy as well.

  The democratization has experienced three complex waves. According to the Huntington (1991), the significant role of economy development for democracy was admitted. However, the development of economy not a only factors to promote democracy. It also related with the beliefs and organisation form in religion (1991). Huntington(1993) pointed that the concept of Protestantism has an important influence on the development of capitalist democracy. The third wave of democracy has been manifested in various cultural areas such as Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Islam. However, there is only a high degree of association between Christianity and democracy. By 1988, 39 were democracies in 46 countries that were Christian and Protestant. While in other religious countries only seven are democratic. First, from the perspective of religious beliefs, Protestantism emphasizes personal conscience. The free understanding of the Bible and the direct faith of God. Individualism is embodied in the doctrine by faith, which reveal the direction of this value favors the development of democracy. Second, from the perspective of the church organization, the clergy are also produced through the election as well as the relationship between people is equal in the church. In addition, the leaders of the church must also follow the decisions of the meeting (1993). The form of Protestant organizational has obviously showed democratic characteristics. It is very helpful and easy to establish a democratic system for the democratization of the country that believes in Protestantism. As a result, beside economy development, beliefs and organisational form in religion are also as a important factors for democracy.

 However, the most of democratic countries are gathered in wealthy countries such as east europe, United States, United Kingdom. It shows the economy development play a significant role in the progress of democracy from a centain perspective. According to Lipset (1959:75) claimed that Economic development and democracy are positively related. The most of the democratic in the world can be classified into four parts: a stable democracy in European, unstable democracy and dictatorships in European, unstable dictatorship and democracy in Latin American and stable dictatorship in Latin American. Some countries are challenged by communism and oligarchic politics. Compare the economic development of these countries through the four indicators: wealth, education, industrialization and urbanization. In addition, each indicator has a standard such as per capita income, the number of cars owned by everyone, the number of doctors, telephones and newspapers. Agricultural population (male) as a proportion of the total population and per capita annual consumption of resources. Large and medium - sized cities accounted for the proportion of the total population. According to the data, compared with unstable and dictatorship in Latin American, the percentage of per capital income in European stable democracy are highest (695 dollars). The percentage of literate in stable democracy in Eurpean is 96, which are also highest (1959:75). From the data, it has been showed that stable democracies are the highest in all categories of indicators. Therefore, Lipset conclued that the richer a country is, the more possible to be democratic.

  Although China has been a biggest economy composition in the world, China still a non-democracy country and the progress of democracy is much slow. Because the form of ruling party and historical culture has effected the democracy. Acoording He and Feng (2008:147) stated that the form of ruling party is one of the main factors affecting the democratization process. The main contradiction of Chinese politics is focused on the existing political system: the one-party ruling and the multi-party participation in the administrative system.(2008:147) It seems to be democratic. But the way of democracy continues the old centralized rule. Xiaobo (2000) said that In the early 1980s, Xiaoping pointed out that the power structure of the Communist Party of China was not clearly divided by the party and government. The power was concentrated in the hands of the party, while the party's power was concentrated in the top of the party and the top was concentrated among the few leaders of the party. Although the participation of other parties expand the power of democracy, A high degree of centralization makes the government unable to effectively manage and many administrative rights are monopolized into a few groups (2000).

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