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Disempowering New Democracies and the Persistence of Poverty

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Summary.
In this paper, Thandika Mkandawire considers two processes taking place simultaneously in
developing countries: the adoption of orthodox economic policies during a period of growing
awareness of the pervasiveness and persistence of poverty, on the one hand, and the growing
political empowerment of the majority of the population through processes of democratization,
on the other hand.
During the last decade, international conferences, pronouncements by international organizations
and bilateral donors, campaigning by non-governmental organizations and the declarations of
national governments have brought the issue of poverty back onto international and national
agendas, following decades when it had been displaced by excessive focus on adjustment and
stabilization. At the same time, significant steps have been made toward democracy in many
countries. This wave of democratization has also served to highlight the blight of poverty, partly
because of the greater transparency in political and economic affairs, partly because of the
political empowerment of the poor themselves, and partly because of the growing recognition
that poverty impinges on democracy’s own prospects.
Until very recently, it was assumed either that democracy was a luxury poor countries could
not afford, or that socioeconomic conditions in these countries were not auspicious for the
implantation of democracy. But the emergence of democracies in social and economic
conditions that had been ruled out by theories that insisted on a number of economic
preconditions for its emergence has led to a new optimism about the prospects for democracy
under widely divergent economic and social conditions. Unfortunately, however, this has also
led to a view about democratic consolidation that assumes an extremely voluntaristic character,
overemphasizing the role of political leadership, strategic choices about basic institutional
arrangements or economic policy, and other contingent process variables. This focus on political
crafting of democracies has bred complacency about the possibility of consolidating
democracies in unfavourable structural contexts. The author argues that it is important to bear
in mind both the ideational and the many structural impediments to the consolidation of
democracy in the developing countries. One such constraint is the predominance of economic
policies that hamper democracies from addressing issues of equity and poverty. Mkandawire
focuses on the fact that new democracies have tended to be more orthodox than older
democracies.

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

Democracy, Governance and Human Rights Programme

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

Geneva : United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)., 2006

Deskripsi Fisik

Democracy, Governance and Human Rights Programme Paper Number 21 January 2006

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

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Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

ILMU SOSIAL

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

agus

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