[lit-ideas] Re: Fukuyama, Sen and Democracy
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:50:40 +0700
Hi John,
I am not an economist so I could be wrong, but Sen's argument
regarding the relationship of democracy to famines seems to depend on
a great deal of economic and statistical data. He has a number of
books and articles on development.
The democracy of Indonesia in the 1960's was, how to put this
politely, in flux. Perhaps a more helpful comparison would be how
Indonesia responded to the radicalism in the 1960's, with perhaps over
a million Indonesians killed, and the radicalism that broke out in the
late 1990's with the fall of Suharto, when thousands were killed.
While historical conditions were obviously different, I would argue
that the democratic institutions in the 1990's were more developed,
with greater control over the military and more responsive to
Indonesian citizens, and therefore better able to quickly address the
hostilities. Indonesia is hardly a shining example of an effective
democracy, it is too corrupt and lacking the fundamentals of equality,
but one cannot underestimate the role a free press and relatively free
and fair elections have had in diffusing sectarian tensions. A recent
violent attack by Islamic militants on supporters of greater freedom
was at first overlooked by the government but a wave of outrage in the
national media forced the government to arrest the perpetrators.
I don't want to deny that democratic institutions may be used for
undemocratic purposes, but I also want to argue that the extent of the
injustice can be constrained by those very same institutions.
Zimbabwe is a good example of this where the pretense of democracy has
forced Mugabe and his cronies into a process they had violently
opposed. That is, while Mugabe and his henchmen have claimed that no
vote will ever remove them from power, the fact that they had
democratic institutions like elections has forced them to act
otherwise. Mugabe is being forced to accommodate the reality of
having received fewer votes than his opponent, because the democratic
institution of a national election has political force in the world
today.
The cycle of an ethnic majority using violence to respond to perceived
injustices inflicted by an ethnic minority is not peculiar to
democratic systems. The question I would have is whether those
democratic systems are more effective in mitigating the violence than
alternative political systems. Put differently, it seems to me that
there will always be resentment between ethnic groups, but I would
argue that democratic institutions are better able to provide a
political environment for peacefully resolving those resentments.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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