Economic Failure in Democracies

Governance is an innate necessity among humans and significantly determines the success or failure of societies. The search for better and more effective leadership system explains the existence of various headship models worldwide. Socialism, authoritarianism, communism, humanism, and democracy are examples of governance approaches tried by humans to date. Each of these systems has benefits and demerits, based on its consequences to the economy and humanity. Democracy is the youngest model of leadership in the word, but practiced mostly, courtesy of the support it receives from some global leaders. Before the transformation into egalitarianism, many communities survived on communism and monarchical paradigms. As the most applied leadership paradigm, democracy experiences significant focus among scholars and the public. A major concern regarding the model touches on its effect on the economy and people’s livelihood. The existence of wars and rampant economic failures globally, particularly among democratic societies elicits the notion that economic disappointments and democracies are related. The perception informs the present work, which seeks to show the specific factors present in the consensuses systems responsible for economic failures.

Utopia and Democracy

Economy is a natural science touching on how humans satisfy unlimited needs using limited resources. () argue that stability is an inborn desire among all humans, and individuals and groups always strive to realize it. The scholars employ the utopia concept to reiterate the desire for stability and growth. According to (), all humans experienced utopia at some point in history, based on the creationism account’s argument that all people are descendants of Adam, who lived in a utopia called Eden. Peaceful co-existence, material sustainability, good health, and adequate money supply among all society members are features of the imaginary society that almost everyone living requires. The desire is responsible for the many leadership styles tried by people worldwide, including democracy, dictatorship, humanism, communism, deism, socialism, and communal living, among others. () associate democracy’s dispersion worldwide in the latter half of the twentieth century to its sponsorship by the U.S. and other European allies. The system’s promise to foster individual growth, inclusivity, and mutual competition made many nations adopt it (). Intrinsically, the adopters perceived democracy as the missing leadership paradigm to offer the long-sought solutions to humanity.

Participative or consensus leadership is the other name for democracy. The management system stands out due to its ability to involve people’s representatives in decision-making processes (). () say that all humans love autonomy, leading to the characteristic aspiration to participate in decision-making processes that affect them (people). However, many headship models tried before the twentieth century never provided adequate room for people to exercise and enjoy their abilities to make verdicts. For example, () describe communism as a botched model or governance that encourages folks to enjoy community-based mediocrity.

Communism’s philosophy that all the citizens own and utilize production means to improve the lives of all the people in society encourages laxity, while killing competition, according to (). The USSR provides per excellence of a failed communist regime, whose letdown depends partly on the absence of competitiveness among citizens. Consequently, the U.S. adopted democracy as a global leadership tool and spread it to the world during the cold war (). The aspect led to the massive adoption of democracy among many Asian and African states in the last half of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, very few of the many countries adopting the system enjoy economic stability today. The matter implies significant correlation between democracy and economic failure worth scholarly investigations. The following discussion thus outlines some of the fundamental aspects leading to economic struggles in democracies. However, the work never supports the idea that democracy is responsible for economic challenges. Rather, the discussion intends to illuminate the issues for possible resolution and improvement of societies around the world.

Democracy’s newness among many adopters is responsible for the associated economic struggles in many Africa counties. () say that many African countries going the democracy way experienced botched economies between the 1960s and 1990s. The matter is also responsible for the many civil wars occurring in the states then. According to (), most nations in Africa and Asia utilized traditional leadership approaches such as monarchy and communism. The situation allowed shared ownership of resources and communal utilization of gains made through communal works. The existence of powerful families and clans at the center of communities’ being made peace.

The former system involves the ownership of production means by the public for the general societal benefits. On the other hand, monarchy involves the survival of a powerful, often authoritarian, headship family or clan, which directs people based on influence and mutual contract. I view political order as problematic: In light of the evidence Africa offers, political order cannot be treated as a given. Rather, I argue, it results when rulers – whom I characterize as “specialists in violence” – choose to employ the means of coercion to protect the creation of wealth rather than to prey upon it and when private citizens choose to set weapons aside and to devote their time instead to the production of wealth and to the enjoyment of leisure.

Insurgency- cause by the behavior of governments; the authoritarian nature of its states and their rulers’ penchant for predation; rendering their people insecure, they provoked insurgencies; the need to drive people from power. Ethnic diversity and political conflict; killing fields of Darfur or of the tenuous peace in Nigeria; ethnicity and violence are joint products of state failure. Political significance of resource wealth; Niger Delta; “dependence upon primary commodity exports” constituted “a particularly powerful risk factor” for the outbreak of civil war; crude oil and natural gas – close ties between the diamond industry and UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) in Angola (Fowler 2000), the smuggling of gemstones and the financing of rebels in Sierra Leone (Reno 2000), and the mining of coltan and the sites of rebellion in eastern Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) (Kakwenzire and Kamukama 2000): the exploitation of natural resources for war finance is a correlate rather than a cause of political disorder.

Democratization: development of “illiberal” political forces; intermediate regimes – those lying somewhere between stable authoritarian and consolidated democratic governments – exhibit significantly higher rates of civil war: intermediate regimes are the product of the “third wave” of democratization and the collapse of communist regimes and are therefore themselves new and vulnerable to disorder. Electoral competition and state failure go together: (political reform and political disorder) the 1980s and 1990s, many of Africa’s governments reformed. Regimes that once had banned the formation of political parties now faced challenges at the polls from candidates backed by an organized political opposition. And in the late 1980s and early 1990s, militias assembled, states failed, and Africa faced rising levels of political disorder.

Economic shocks will indeed play a major role in this analysis, but the focus will be on their impact on the revenues of states, not on the incomes of individuals. Ways of living; powerful leader, wealthy communities that get wealthy through seizures and raids, paying bribes to the leader for protection; leader never robs them, but promotes private property ownership; Promotes political stability as the leader only gets rewards from the masses for protection against raids, the violence specialist. Masses enjoy wealth and leisure. Withholding taxes easily turns the guardian into a predator, often using force to get property from the public, further forcing the affected masses to retaliate as a group, leading to defection. Defectors forfeit paying taxes and mobilize to fight; forces the person to change from guardian into warlord.

Culture clash: Chad, southern farmer becomes a national leader, appoints neighborhood folks to become chiefs, impose agri.-based policies on pastoralists, charging cattle taxes; the Front for the Liberation of Chad (FLT) in the east and the Front for National Liberation (FROLINAT) in the north. It was only by calling for military assistance from France that Tombalbaya remained in power. Dependence on international markets and the general impact of oil price changes on employment, taxes, and government revenues. Both states and individuals demanded growth in the past century. In the face of global crises, national leaders become a source of threat as they engage in money-making activities that destabilize the masses, worsening local economic situation.