Chapter - 1 Democracy in the Contemporary World

Two Tales of Democracy

Military Coup of 1973

• Salvador Allende was the founder leader of the Socialist Party of Chile who won the presidential election in 1970.
• After being President, He adopted several policies to help poor and the workers which included:
• reform of the educational system
• free milk for children and redistribution of land to the landless farmers
• opposing foreign companies that are taking away natural resources like copper from the country.
• But, the policies were opposed by landlords, the rich and the church and also by some other political parties.
• His government was overthrown by the military on 11 September 1973.
• On the morning of 11 September 1973, the military took over the seaport and arrested Defence Minister when he arrived at his office.
• The military commanders asked President Allende to resign but he refused to resign or leave the country.
• Then the military surrounded the President’s house and started bombing it. President Allende died in the military attack.
• The military coup was led by General Augusto Pinochet, an Army general.
• The government of the United States of America was unhappy with Allende’s rule and is known to have supported and funded activities that led to the coup.
• Pinochet became the President of the country and ruled it for the next 17 years.
• From a democratic government, a military dictatorship was established in Chile.
• Pinochet’s government tortured and killed several of those who supported Allende and those who wanted democracy to be restored.

Restoration of Democracy

• Pinochet held a referendum in 1988 as he felt confident that in this referendum, the people would say ‘yes’ to his continuing in power.
• But the people of Chile say 'no' to Pinochet and his military dictatorship ended.
• Political freedom in Chile restored.
• Slowly, the army’s role in the country’s government has been eliminated.
• The elected government that came to power ordered inquiries that showed that his government was not only very brutal, but also very corrupt.
• In January 2006, Michelle Bachelet, daughter of General Alberto Bachelet was elected President of Chile.

Democracy in Poland

• In 1980, Poland was ruled by the Polish United Workers’ Party, a communist party.
• In the country, no other political party was allowed to function.
• The people could not freely choose the leaders and those who spoke against the leaders or the party or the governments were put in prison.
• The government in Poland was supported and controlled by the government of the Soviet Union (USSR), a vast and powerful communist state.
• On 14 August 1980, the workers of Lenin Shipyard, owned by the government in the city of Gdansk went on a strike. The strike began with a demand to take back a crane operator, a woman worker, who was unjustly dismissed from service.
• Lech Walesa, a former electrician of the shipyard who was dismissed from service in 1976 for demanding higher pay joined the strikers. The strike began to spread across the whole city and they started raising larger demands. They wanted the right to form independent trade unions. They also demanded the release of political prisoners and an end to censorship on press.
• Finally, the government had to give in and the workers led by Walesa signed a 21-point agreement with the government that ended their strike. The government agreed to recognise the workers’ right to form independent trade unions and their right to strike.
• After the Gdansk agreement was signed, a new trade union called Solidarity (Solidarnosc in Polish) was formed. It was the first time an independent trade union was formed in any of the communist states.
• Revelations of widespread corruption and mismanagement in the government made matters worse for the rulers.
• The government, led by General Jaruzelski, grew anxious and imposed martial law in December 1981.
• Thousands of Solidarity members were put in prison.

Restoration of Democracy

• In 1988. Solidarity again organised the strikes. This time the Polish government was weaker, the support from Soviet Union uncertain and the economy was in decline.
• In April 1989, another round of negotiations with Walesa resulted in an agreement for free elections.
• Solidarity contested all the 100 seats of the Senate and won 99 of them.
• In October 1990, Poland had its first presidential elections in which more than one party could contest.
• Walesa was elected President of Poland.

Two Features of Democracy

• Democracy is a form of government that allows people to choose their rulers.
• Two features of democracy are:
• only leaders elected by people should rule the country, and
• people have the freedom to express views, freedom to organise and freedom to protest.

The Changing Map of Democracy

• Democracy has expanded throughout the twentieth
• Democracy did not spread evenly in all parts of the world.
• While a majority of countries are democratic today, there are still large parts of the world that are not democratic.

Phases in the Expansion of Democracy

The Beginning

• The French Revolution of 1789 did not establish a secure and stable democracy in France.
• Through the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, series of political events reduced the power of monarchy and feudal lords.
• In 1776, the British colonies in North America declared themselves independent and came together to form the United States of America.
• The nation struggling for democracy wanted voting right granted universally to all adults — men or women, rich or poor, white or black called ‘universal adult franchise’ or ‘universal suffrage’.
• Early democracies were established in Europe, North America and Latin America.

End of Colonialism

• Many countries became democracies immediately after the end of the Second World War in 1945.
• Ghana, a country in western Africa used to be a British colony named Gold Coast.
• It became independent in 1957.
• It was among the first countries in Africa to gain independence and inspired other African countries to struggle for freedom.
• Nkrumah who was active in the independence struggle of his country became the first prime minister and then the president of Ghana.
• He got himself elected president for life but soon after, in 1966, he was overthrown by the military.

Recent Phase

• After 1980, democracy started spreading more quickly.
• The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 accelerated this process. The Soviet Union comprised 15 Republics which emerged as independent countries and most of them became democracies.
• Democracy was revived in several countries of Latin America.
• Pakistan and Bangladesh made a transition from army rule to democracy in 1990s.
• In Nepal, the king gave up many of his powers to become a constitutional monarch to be guided by elected leaders.
• Myanmar, a neighbouring country of India, gained freedom from colonial rule in 1948 and became a democracy.
• But the democratic rule ended in 1962 with a military coup.
• The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the election in 1990 elections.
• But the military leaders of Myanmar refused to step down and did not recognise the election results. Instead, the military put the elected pro-democracy leaders, including Suu Kyi, under house arrest.
• Anyone caught publicly airing views or issuing statements critical of the regime can be sentenced up to twenty years in prison.
• Due to the coercive policies of the military-ruled government in Myanmar, about 6 to 10 lakh people in that country have been uprooted from their homes and have taken shelter elsewhere.
• Despite being under house arrest, Suu Kyi continued to campaign for democracy. Her struggle has won international recognition. She has also been awarded the Noble Peace prize.
• Yet the people in Myanmar are still struggling to establish democratic government in their country.
• By 2005, about 140 countries were holding multi-party elections, higher than ever before.

International Organisations

There is no government of the world can pass any law that will apply to all the people of the world.

But there are many institutions in the world that perform partially the functions of such a government. These organisations cannot command countries and citizens in a way a government can, but they do make rules that put limits on what governments can do.

Various International Organisations are:

• United Nations (UN): It is a global association of nations of the world to help cooperation in international law, security, economic development and social equity. The UN Secretary General is its chief administrative officer.
• UN Security Council: It is an organ of the UN, is responsible for maintaining peace and security among countries. It can put together an international army and take action against the wrongdoer.
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank lend money to governments when they need it. Before lending they ask the concerned government to show all its accounts and direct it to make changes in its economic policy.