By Nigel Hilton
The world economic forum published an article in late 2017 that stated that democracy is on the decline. Countries around the world are seeing the democratic values decline sharply, but we can’t blame that will all the issues the world is facing at the minute. But a world without democracy is not one that we want to live in. Democracy covers a wide range of categories. It is measured by the function of a government, the state of civil liberties, and political culture to name but a few. There are still some countries leading the way that have a strong democracy, Norway and Iceland are to name but a few. So considering that democracy is on the decline, we’re going to explore what a world with no democracy is, and what is being done to try and strengthen it around the world.
Economic Growth
Democracy actually effects economic growth more than you would realise, but there have been many studies carried out that have tried to prove this different. It is in fact common belief that it has no influence over economic growth at all, but you can’t ignore the statistics. The lower the level of democracy goes in a country, the lower the level of economic growth. This is because political regimes aren’t being carried out to protect the economic growth of a country. The effects of which can be catastrophic for the economy and cost of living within that country.
Government Power
The government holds a lot of power, that’s always been the case. But the power the government has often causes so many issues in the world. There is only so much the public can do with regards to this, but the state of civil liberties does protect us somewhat. It means to government can’t change civil rights such as the ‘free exercise’ which allows people to practice their religion. What it doesn’t protect us from is the decisions being made about wars and the things that are really damaging our countries. The National Endowment for Democracy is funding non-profit organisations that are trying to change the level of government power in countries that might have a lower level of democracy, and in turn bring countries closer together. Because it isn’t just government power that democracy determines, it is just so much more than that. Countries such as North Korea have zero levels of democracy, and their ruler does in fact have full power of the decisions that will affect his nation.
Public Political Influences
The public can only have so much say in what the government does, as we’ve already said. But, the higher the influence of the public, the higher the level of democracy. It is giving the public the right to decide smaller decisions that happen within the country. Take the recent brexit of Britain. 72% of the population turned out to vote, which saw a rise in the level of democracy within a country. The less influence the public has, the more decisions that the government could make that would not go in favor of the public.
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