Development and Democracy

Development and Democracy



Development and Democracy

Introduction

In order to examine weather democracy is to bring development or not, it is important to specify or clarify, what is meant by concept of democracy and development. The bulk of literature had been developed that argues that democracy is necessary to bring development. In this essay, first I will define the terms of democracy and development then discussing the main argument the conclusion will be drawn from those arguments and facts. Second, I will assess different approaches of development, in terms of scholars view. An in the main argument for this essay, I will highlight, the importance and necessity of democracy in bringing development to the society and nation? This question will also answer whether democracy and development are correlated or not. Another argument is that whether countries that have gained democracies also had rapid growth and development or not? Key question we need ask is does development, lead to democracy, or other way round, the notion of democracy enhance to development. Can we say democracy and development are compatible, which means that is it possible to have one without the other? The central theme of the essay will revolve around these questions. However, in the body of literature, there will be discussion and examples related to the questions, and in the end, all the argumentative points will be summarized to come up to the conclusion.

What is development?

When we consider the subject of development, it is very important to understand that all terms related to the development such as social concerns and political values. It can be argued that development can be founded only within an ideological frame work (Roberts, 1984, p. 7). Since the Second World War the dominant ideas by the majority of government can be seen through the development with economic growth and perspective of free market international economic. “Economic growth is identified as necessary for competing poverty, defined as the inability of people to meet their basic material needs through cash transaction” (Baylis & Smith, 2001, p. 24). However, the World Bank, where countries are categorized based on their income, the countries that have the lower national income per head of population or GDP per capita are regarded as less developed then the country with higher income or GDP per capita. Furthermore, the alternative approach is different than this and is gaining recognition in NGOs that express the language of human rights. “Alternative approach of development has however, emerged from a few governments, NGOs, some academics. Their concerns have centred broadly on entitlement and distribution, often expressed in the language of human rights” (Oxhorn & Pamela, 1999, p. 413).

Poverty is identified as the inability to provide for oneself and one's family, the basic material needs by subsistence or cash transactions, and by the absence of an environment conductive to human well-being broadly conceived in spiritual and community terms. Another hand, the languages of opposition are growing supposedly as idea of growth and polarize as a universal victory ...