Is Democracy A Western Or A Universal Value?

The term democracy has many explanations that can be related to it, for example, democracy means the rule of the majority, this form of democracy advocates for equal say of all the citizens when it comes to the issues of political decisions in the country and is commonly known as direct democracy (Canache, 2012). The other explanation of democracy is based on the modern democracy,  whereby the elected individuals hold public offices and are accountable for political decisions; in this case, elections are required to be free, fair and just, in addition, the citizens are protected by the constitution which is perceived to legally promote equality. This essay argues whether democracy is a western or a universal value;

Several individuals argues that democracy is just a western values, this is due to the fact that is incompatible with countries that have incompatible cultures with that of the westerners as well as those countries that have been affected by deep religious beliefs (Perry, n.d). These incompatible non-western cultures and some religious practices act as barriers to liberal democracies. An example of a country like China has been used; in the case of China, is affected by Confucianism, which is considered to be a barrier of democracy due to the fact that it upholds the idea of social hierarchy. In addition, Confucianism  discounts the idea of equality, which is a central element of liberal democracy, thus since equality and democracy cannot be separated, democracy cannot be a value to countries like China as it continues to use aspect of Confucianism in governance (Wanniarachchi, 2015).

Islam is a non western culture and is also considered to be incompatible with the fundamental values of democracy, most of the Arabic culture does not promote the idea of women governing, and this is against the principles of democracy, whereby each individual should be given a democratic right to run for a political seat.  However, some political experts argue that the Islamic culture is open to the idea of democracy, this is due to the fact that some of the Arabian writers were involved in putting up the report for Arabian Human Development, in which the issue to promote democratization was raised.

Although there are arguments against the idea of democracy having a universal value, democracy widely function to many countries and it is considered to be among the major requirements for  global economic development (Shin, 2012). The benefits of democracy do not just focus in one angle, it has a plurality of values, and for example, it is an instrument that is used to promote equality in a country resulting in equal distribution of government resources. In addition, political experts argue that the western countries have developed economically, and democracy has  been a necessity to these developments. The other benefit is that, countries that practice democracy are less likely to go to civil war, this is due to the fact that the citizens are involved in the political decision making process in the country and this leads to the development of patriotism and loyalty.

In conclusion, this essay shades lights on whether democracy is a western or a universal value by addressing and giving a convincing argument on some of the issues that have challenged or promoted the idea of democracy. Based on this essay, both the arguments supporting or against the universal value of democracy are justified, thus the practice of democracy should depend with the benefits that can be achieved from the implementation.

 

 

References

Canache, D. (2012). Citizens’ Conceptualizations of Democracy Structural Complexity,    Substantive Content, and Political Significance. Comparative Political Studies, 45(9), 1132-1158.< http://cps.sagepub.com/content/45/9/1132.short>

Perry, J.,(n.d). Is Democracy a Universal Value?<     http://philosophytalk.org/community/blog/john-perry/2015/04/democracy-universal-   value>

Shin, D. (2012). Is Democracy Emerging as a Universal Value? A Contrarian Perspective (No.    68). Asia Barometer Survey Working Paper.<                 http://www.eastasiabarometer.org/publications/6c99daf3e1cbe36aed521c9ee0c4747d.pdf >

Wanniarachchi, T.,(2015). Democracy: Western Concept or Universal Value?<       http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/democracy–western-concept-or-universal-value-   >