SUMMARY OUTCOMES OF DEMOCRACY

Department Of Social Science

POLITICAL SCIENCE(X)

CHAPTER 06

           OUTCOMES OF DEMOCRACY

ASSESSMENT OF OUTCOMES OF DEMOCRACY

The expected and actual outcomes of Democracy can be assessed by quality of Government, Economic Well-being, Inequality, Social Differences, Freedom and Dignity. After assessing outcomes of Democracy it can be recognized that Democracy is a best form of Government which can create conditions for achieving its goal.

The Citizens can take advantage of those conditions and achieve their goals

Democracy has been considered a better form of Government than other forms of Government, because;

·         It Promotes equality among citizens

·         Improves the quality of Decision Making

·         Allows room to correct Mistakes

·         Enhance the Dignity of an Individual

·         Provide a method to resolve Conflicts.

THREE OUTCOMES OF DEMOCRACY – POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL

POLITICAL OUTCOMES

1) Accountable and Responsive

In a Democracy, accountable and responsive government is the one that is answerable to its citizens. It is responsible for making all decisions on behalf of its citizens and according to their needs and Expectations. Before taking any decision, it is responsibility of the government to follow procedures. If the government has made wrong decisions then it has to accept that and rectify it immediately.

In Contrast Non Democratic government do not bother about complaints of citizens. They are also not worried about public opinions. It takes decisions very fast and which are not acceptable to the citizens.

Therefore the outcome of Democracy is to produce a Government that follows procedure and is accountable to the people. Democratic Government Develops Mechanism for citizens to hold the government accountable and mechanism for citizens to take part in Decision Making

2)Transparency in Decision Making

Transparency means Openness, Communication and accountability of the government. It means that government should be operated in such a way that it is easy for citizens to see what actions are performed while Decision Making.

Transparency is considered missing in Non Democratic government. But in Reality Democratic Governments also do not have very good record to share Information of Decision Making with Its Citizens.  

3) Legitimate Government 

In Democracy, a legitimate government is a lawful government where all the laws of the country are equally applicable to all its Citizens and people are governed without fear or favour as well.

A Legitimate government should be attentive to the needs and demands of the people and people should be governed without fear or favour.

A Democratic Government may be slow, less efficient and not always responsive a team but it is Peoples own Government. That’s why it is certainly better and more legitimate form of Government.

ECONOMIC OUTCOMES

Economic growth, Development, Reduction of Poverty and Inequality are the Prominent Economic Outcomes of Democracy.

1.) Economic Growth and Development:

It is expected from a government that it should bring economic growth and Development. But many democracies of the world are unable to fulfil this expectations.

Data for the fifty years between 1950 and 2000 suggests that dictatorships have slightly higher economic growth. In most of the democracies, the economic growth is somewhat slower. But there are many democratic countries which are among the economic superpowers of the world. This shows that economic growth does not depend on the form of government only. Other factors also decide the trend of economic growth; like population size, global situation, cooperation from other countries, economic priorities of the country, etc.

When we look at several other positive outcomes; along with a reasonable economic growth; then democracy is always better than dictatorship.

2) Reduction of Inequality and Poverty:

Democracy is based on Political equality and all Individuals have equal rights to choose their leaders. A small Number of Ultra-rich enjoy a high disproportionate share of wealth and Incomes. Due to this reason their share in total Income of the country is increasing. On the other hand the Income of poor is declining.

Sometimes Poor find it difficult to meet their basic needs of life, such as food, clothing, house, education and health. Though poor constitute a large proportion of voters, yet the democratic governments are not keen to take up the question of Poverty. The situation is much worse in some other countries. Even people of poor countries are now dependent on the rich countries.

Economic inequality has been increasing all over the world. In India, a larger portion of the population is poor and the number of rich people is less. Moreover, there is a large difference in the income of rich and the poor. In most of the countries, democracy has failed in reducing economic inequalities.

SOCIAL OUTCOMES

The Social Outcomes of a Democracy Should be accommodating social diversity and providing Dignity and freedom to the citizens.

1) Accommodation of social diversity:

Every society is full of diversities and conflicts are bound to happen among various sections. It is impossible to fully rule out the possibility of conflicts. Bu democracy normally develops a procedure by which there can be a healthy competition among different sections of the society. People can learn to respect the differences and learn to resolve conflicts in an amicable manner. In most of the democratic countries, social diversity is accommodated peacefully. There can be some examples where social diversity is still a big problem; like in case of Sri Lanka.

2) Dignity and freedom of the citizens:

Democracy has succeeded in ensuring the dignity and freedom of its citizens. Let us take example of India. There are many social groups which had faced a long history of oppression. Due to democratic process, a sizeable portion of these people have been able to move up the social ladder and are in a position to assert themselves

3) Promotes Equality of Women

Because of democracy, women could be able to wage a struggle for staking their claim to equality. In most of the democratic countries, women have succeeded in getting equal status in the society. This is not the case in most of the autocracies.

4)Reduce  Caste Inequalities

Caste based inequalities had been quite predominant in India. But thanks to the democratic process, such cases have reduced to a bare minimum. People from all castes can be seen in every sphere of life