CIVICS CH5

OUTCOMES OF DEMOCRACY
HOW DO WE ASSESS DEMOCRACIE’S OUTCOMES?
1. Democracy is a better form of government when compared with dictatorship or any
other alternative because it
a) Promotes equality among citizens;
b) Enhances the dignity of the individual;
c) Improves the quality of decision-making,
d) Provides a method to resolve conflicts;
e) Allows room to correct mistakes.
All these are Expectations in democracy.
Are these expectation realised in democracy?
Reality
 Most of the people support democracy against other alternatives, such as rule
by a monarch or military or religious leaders.
 But not so many of them would be satisfied with the democracy in practice.
Democracy is seen to be good in principle, but felt to be not so good in its practice.
“Democracy is seen to be good in principle, but felt to be not so good in its
practice.” Explain.

2. Is democracy accepted only because of moral reasons or are there any prudential
reasons also?
 Hundred countries of the world today claim and practice some kind of democratic
politics:
- They have formal constitutions.
- They hold elections.
- They have parties.
- They guarantee rights of citizens.
 While these features are common to most of them,
But, these democracies are very much different from each other in terms of
their social situations, their economic achievements and their cultures.
Is there something that we can expect from every democracy, just because it is a
democracy?
 Our interest in and fascination for democracy often pushes us into taking a
position that
- Democracy can address all socio-economic and political problems.
- If some of our expectations are not met, we start blaming the idea of
democracy.
- We start doubting if we are living in a democracy.
The first step towards thinking carefully about the outcomes of democracy is to
recognise that Democracy is just a form of government.
- It can only create conditions for achieving something.
- The citizens have to take advantage of those conditions and achieve those goals.
ACCOUNTABLE, RESPONSIVE & LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT
In a democracy, we expect that
 People will have the right to choose their rulers and people will have control over
the rulers.
 Citizens should be able to participate in decision making.
Therefore, the most basic outcome of democracy should be that it produces a
government that is accountable to the citizens, and responsive to the needs and
expectations of the citizens and this make up a legitimate government.
1. Outcome of democratic government on efficiency and effectiveness
 Democracy is based on the idea of deliberation and negotiation.
 Non Democratic government may take decisions very fast, which is not accepted
by the people and may therefore face problems. But, In contrast, the democratic
government will take more time to follow procedures before arriving at a decision.
 Because it has followed procedures, its decisions may be both more acceptable to
the people and more effective.
 Democracy ensures transparency. But, this factor is missing from a non-
democratic government.
Therefore, it is right to expect democracy to produce a government that follows
procedures and is accountable to the people.
Can we say that democracy produces accountable form of government? Explain.
If we want to measure democracies on the basis of expected outcomes, we may
look for the following practices and institutions:
Expectation
 Regular, free and fair elections;
 Open public debate on major policies and legislations;
 Citizens' right to information about the government and its functioning.
Reality
 Most democracies fall short of elections that provide a fair chance to everyone
and in subjecting every decision to public debate.
 Democratic governments do not have a very good record when it comes to
sharing information with citizens.
We can say in favour of democratic regimes is that they are much better than any
non-democratic regime in these respects.
2. Democracy produce responsive form of government
 It may be reasonable to expect from democracy a government that is attentive to
the needs and demands of the people and is largely free of corruption.
 But in reality, Democracies often frustrate the needs of the people and often ignore
the demands of a majority of it population.
 At the same time, there is nothing to show that non-democracies are less corrupt or
more sensitive to the people.
3. Democratic government is certainly better than its alternatives: democratic
government is legitimate government.
 It may be slow, less efficient, not always very responsive or clean. But a democratic
government is people's own government.
 That is why there is an overwhelming support for the idea of democracy all over
the world.
 Democracy's ability to generate its own support is itself an outcome that cannot be
ignored.
Bangladesh India Nepal Pakistan Sri
Lanka
Democracy is Preferable 60 70 62 37 71
Sometimes Dictatorship is 6 9 10 14 11
better
Doesn’t matter to me 25 21 28 49 18

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Democracy is good government, then it would produce development also.
Evidence shows that in practice may democracies did not fulfil this expectation.
 If you consider all democracies and all dictatorships for the fifty years between 1950
and 2000, dictatorships have slightly higher rate of economic growth.
Rates of economic growth for different countries, 1950 – 2000
Type of regimes and Growth
countries Rate
All democratic regimes 3.95
All dictatorial regimes 4.42
Poor countries under 4.34
dictatorship
Poor countries under 4.28
democracy
 But this alone cannot be reason to reject democracy.
 Economic development depends on several factors: country's population size,
global situation, cooperation from other countries, economic priorities adopted by
the country, etc.
 Development is a not a guaranteed but democracy it can compete with dictatorship
over economic growth..
When we find such significant difference in the rates of economic growth between
countries under dictatorship and democracy, it is better to prefer democracy as it
has several other positive outcomes.

REDUCTION OF INEQUALITY AND POVERTY

Perhaps more than development, it is reasonable to expect democracies to reduce
economic disparities.
 Questions associated with our expectation from democracy
 Will wealth be distributed in such a way that all citizens of the country will have a
share and lead a better life?
 Is economic growth in democracies accompanied by increased inequalities among
the people?
 Do democracies lead to a just distribution of goods and opportunities?
Inequality of income in selected countries
% share of National  Democracies are based on
Name of the Income political equality. All
countries Top Bottom individuals have equal weight in
20% 20% electing representatives.
South Africa 64.8 2.9  But at the same time we find
Brazil 63 2.6 growing economic inequalities.
Russia 53.7 4.4  Economic disparities between
USA 50 4 rich and poor.
United Kingdom 45 6  A small number of ultra-rich
Denmark 34.5 9.6 enjoy highly disproportionate
Hungary 34.4 10
share of wealth and incomes.
 Share of rich in the total income of the country has been increasing.
 Those at the bottom of the society have very little to depend upon.
 Their incomes have been declining. Sometimes they find it difficult to meet their
basic needs of life, such as food, clothing, house, education and health.
Democracies do not successful in reducing appear to be very economic inequalities.
- Democracy constitute a large proportion of their voters.
- The poor constitute a large proportion of their voters
- No party will like to lose their votes.
- Yet democratically elected governments do not appear to be as keen to address
the question of poverty.
- The situation is much worse in some other countries like Bangladesh.
ACCOMMODATION OF SOCIAL DIVERSITY
 It will be a fair expectation that democracy should produce a harmonious social life.
 Democracies accommodate various social divisions.
 This reduces the possibility of these tensions becoming explosive or violent.
Society have different groups and have conflicts.
 No society can fully and permanently resolve conflicts among different groups.
 But we can certainly learn to respect these differences and we can also evolve
mechanisms to negotiate the differences.
 Democracy is best suited to produce this outcome.
 Non-democratic regimes often turn a blind eye to or suppress internal social
differences.
Therefore ability to handle social differences, division and conflicts is thus a definite
plus point of democratic regimes.
Why the situation is not same in Sri Lanka?
Democracy must fulfil two conditions in order to achieve this outcome:
1. The democracy is not simply rule by majority opinion.
 The majority always needs to work with the minority so that governments
function to represent the general view.
2. The rule by majority does not become rule by majority community in terms of
religion or race or linguistic group, etc.
 Rule by majority means that in case of every decision or in case of every
election, different persons and groups may and can form a majority.
Thus, democracy remains democracy only as long as every citizen has a chance of being
in majority at some point of time.
DIGNITY AND FREEDOM OF THE CITIZENS
Our expectation from democracy in this regard that
 Democracy stands much superior to any other form of government in promoting
dignity and freedom of the individual.
 But it is difficult to achieve this in societies which have been built for long on the
basis of subordination and domination.
For Example- Dignity of women in a male dominated society
- Caste base division.
 Most societies across the world were historically male dominated societies. Dignity
of women is not guaranteed over long period.
- But, once the principle is recognised, it becomes easier for women to wage a
struggle against what is now unacceptable legally and morally.
 The same is true of caste inequalities.
- Democracy in India has strengthened the claims of the disadvantaged and
discriminated castes for equal status and equal opportunity.
- There are instances still of caste-based inequalities and atrocities, but these lack
the moral and legal foundations.
It is the recognition that makes ordinary citizens value their democratic rights.
Most distinctive thing about democracy is that its examination never gets over.
 As people get some benefits of democracy, they ask for more and want to make
democracy even better.
 People will always come up with more expectations, and many complaints.
 The fact that people are complaining is itself a testimony to the success of democracy.
 It shows that people have developed awareness and the ability to expect and to look
critically at power holder and the high and the mighty.
 A public expression of dissatisfaction with democracy shows the success of the
democracy.
 It transforms people from the status of a subject into that of a citizen.
 Most individuals today believe that their vote makes a difference to the way the
government is run and to their own self-interest.