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No Economic Growth Without Democracy, Says UN Development Chief - Social and Economic Policy - Global Policy Forum No Economic Growth Without Democracy,
Says UN Development Chief
By Jeffrey Allen
OneWorld US
October 22, 2002Despite having formally embraced democracy, a failure by many governments to implement its underlying principles has had a negative impact on their citizens and the economic health of their nations, said the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Monday.
"Free and fair elections are necessary, but they are not sufficient" to ensure governments are committed to the economic and social improvement of their citizens, Mark Malloch Brown told academics and development workers in a speech organized by the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.
Although nearly half of the 140 countries that hold regular, multiparty elections, have accepted the democratic model over the past 20 years, fewer than 60 percent can be classified as "fully democratic," Malloch Brown explained. In many cases, once elected, leaders set about consolidating their hold on power, which can include amending constitutions, manipulating elections, and bullying weak legislatures and judiciaries, according to Malloch Brown. Such measures can hamper the ability of electorates to remove governments that fail them, he added, leaving little incentive for those in power to forge policies that benefit citizens, and in particular, poorer sections of the population.
Zimbabwe and Madagascar are among the many African countries where democratically elected presidents have come under fire of late for employing dubious political tactics. Despite claiming a commitment to democratic ideals, the ruling ZANU-PF party in Zimbabwe, headed by President Robert Mugabe, claimed victories in a series of recent elections marred by intimidation of opposition supporters and candidates as well as the imposition of draconian measures to restrain political rallies and press freedom.
Earlier this year in Madagascar, President Didier Ratsiraka, who held power for nearly 30 years, pressured the country's High Court--appointed and dismissible by his will alone--to certify election results in his favor. Only a massive display of "people power" on the streets of the capital city succeeded in overturning the court's decision.
"African nations are staging more elections than a decade ago, but the winners are the same old power brokers...democratic forms are being embraced, but not the substance," wrote University of California Berkeley Professor G. Paschal Zacary in Tuesday's Accra Daily Mail, a Ghanaian newspaper.
Promoting strong democratic structures has gained renewed attention since the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, driven in part by the realization that "it is impossible to hide in a globalized world from the consequences of states that are failing their own people," said Malloch Brown, referring to the US$5 billion per year the Bush administration has promised in increased foreign development aid, which includes democratic governance in its criteria for determining the countries to receive assistance.
The UNDP's most recent annual report on global human development--which monitors access to education, healthcare, minimum economic standards of living and the freedom to participate in community life, both political and social--focused primarily on the role of democracy in spurring economic growth and social equality.
Special attention has also been given to the Middle East region with the release of the Arab Human Development Report--sponsored by the United Nations, but produced mainly by Arab experts and intellectuals--which credits the region's declining economic and human rights situation to a deficit of democracy, women's rights, and civic education.
Giving citizens the information and political power to hold governments accountable for their performance is the surest way to guarantee that the needs of the poor are met by their governments, stressed Malloch Brown. "These have been good years for democracy," he said, "but it could have been better."
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