| |
Contributions from
the Column
Books and Media
Common Ground or Mutual Exclusion?
It takes more than free elections to make a democracy
“Technology” as a key to development
Educational mission “Global learning”
3/2004 |
|
[ Conceptual study and country analyses ]
It takes more than free elections to make a democracy
How do you categorise Namibia's system of government? Is it a Western-style democracy? On the surface, it seems so. The constitution reads like a direct import from the West; parliamentarians and president are voted into office in what independent observers describe as free and fair elections. But what about President Sam Nujoma's attacks on homosexuals, white farmers and foreigners? And how can government policy which is marked by flagrant nepotism and increasing tribalism be compatible with a supposedly democratic system?
Namibia shows that it takes more than free elections to make a democracy. But does that mean the country is moving towards dictatorship? Hardly. The example of Namibia also shows that harassment of minorities, despotic action by the executive, poorly established rule of law and lack of opportunities for public participation do not make the case for labeling a country a dictatorship. Dictators do not hold free elections. So how do you classify a regime which wears democratic credentials on its sleeve but operates internally with finely tuned tools of authoritarian power? Where does democracy end and where does dictatorship begin?
A growing number of political scientists does solve this problem of drawing a clear dividing line between the two by defining a third, “hybrid” regime. Of course, there have been hybrid political systems in the past. But they used to be regarded as transitional phenomena; now, many scientists concede they have a distinctive and enduring character.
Bendel, Croissant and Rüb provide an overview of the research done on this subject. The fruit of two conferences staged by the German Association of Political Science DVPW (Deutsche Vereinigung für Politische Wissenschaft), it contains papers by 16 authors setting out conceptual and theoretical deliberations illustrated by a wealth of country and regional analyses.
Sadly, the book fails to delve more deeply into the question of what a hybrid regime means for development policy cooperation. Does cooperation with government agencies and semi-governmental organisations in such countries need to be reassessed? How efficient are these seemingly democratic institutions really? And how helpful for the development process are much vaunted NGOs who, despite their legal autonomy, are caught up in a web of patrimonial ties which is hard to make out from the outside but which impinges on their true purpose. Werner Eggert
Petra Bendel, Aurel Croissant, Friedbert W. Rüb (Eds.):
Zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur. Zur Konzeption und Empirie demokratischer Grauzonen (Between Democracy and Dictatorship. Conception and Empirical Experience of Grey Areas of Democracy).
Opladen, Leske and Budrich 2002, 359 pp.,
Euro 34.90, ISBN 3-8100-3087-2 [in German]
|
