Copyright 2000 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 13-Jun-0* ***
Title: DEVELOPMENT: Economic Growth or Democracy - A
Difficult Choice
By Lewis Machipisa
STOCKHOLM, Jun 13 (IPS)- Is the developing world poor because it
is not democratic or is it undemocratic because it is
impoverished?
''Democracy is difficult to build on empty stomachs,'' Adebayo
Olukoshi, a research programme coordinator at the Nordic Africa
Institute in Sweden, says in a newsletter of the International
IDEA.
According to Olukoshi, democracy that does not deliver material
benefits is useless.
Olukoshi's views were shared at an international forum titled
'Democracy and Poverty: A Missing Link?' held in Stockholm,
Sweden
last week.
Some 100 politicians, policy-makers, donors, academics, Non
Governmental Organisations representatives and United Nations
officials, from around the world, attended the International
Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA)'s Fifth
Democracy Forum.
Participants to the conference noted that effective governance
is often the missing link between anti-poverty efforts and poverty
eradication.
While there are some undemocratic countries that have managed
to alleviate poverty, that choice is not open to many countries.
A report on Democracy and Poverty covering four regions, the
former Soviet Union, South Asia, Latin America and Sub Saharan
Africa, prepared for the Democracy Forum, shows that poor people
associate poverty with the emergence of democracy.
The report described the state of democracy in the region as 'a
facade that imitates democracy' and 'a show of elections'. It said
for the ordinary person, democracy was considered to be the
'reason for all problems, the cause of unemployment and poverty'.
However, generally, participants to the forum agreed that there
is no acceptable alternative to democracy, even if it may not be
operating properly and as satisfactorily as the people would want.
They agreed that there must be a strong commitment towards
democracy and this must be reflected in the elimination of
corruption in all forms and removal of discrimination, including
that against children.
The forum heard that despite the fact that there are now more
democratically elected governments in the world, global poverty is
on the increase.
Democracy, as a poverty alleviation method, has a poor
performance record in the provision of rights and resources to the
majority of people living in developing countries.
Some 1.5 billion people live on less than one US dollar per day
while nearly a billion people are illiterate and almost a third of
the population in the developing world, is not expected to survive
to the age of 40.
The World Bank says that worldwide total of people living on
less than one US dollar a day has increased from 1.2 billion
people in 1987 to 1.5 billion people today.
If current economic and population trends persist at the
alarming rate of poverty expanding at a rate of 25 million people
per year, this figure will reach 1.9 billion people by 2015.
''We are not saying that democracy is a panacea for all ills of
poverty,'' said Bengt Save-Soderbergh, International IDEA's
secretary-general.
''But democratic values and institutions help draw public
attention to pressing needs of the poor. This involves going
beyond building and reforming democratic institutions.''
International IDEA's objective is to promote and advance
sustainable democracy worldwide and to improve and consolidate
electoral processes. The organisation believes that the answer to
alleviating poverty may lie, in part, in linking poverty
eradication with democracy promotion.
''In reality there is nothing fundamentally incompatible
between a basic faith in democratic politics and the desire to
ensure that democracy is enriched through the enhancement of
everything from basic citizenship rights to impoverished social
livelihoods,'' says Olukoshi.
''This is especially, but not exclusively, relevant for the
countries of the developing world, where mass poverty and related
problems of violent conflict and corruption are among the
principal issues that continue to pose serious challenges to the
democratic project,'' says Olukoshi.
In Africa, as in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe,
politicians have recognised that popular enthusiasm for, and
participation in, democratic politics is in danger of being
truncated by the grim and daily struggle for survival, says
Olukoshi.
Meghnad Desai, of the London School of Economics, says pursuit
of growth which puts people at the centre and allocates more
money to health care and literacy than to armies and parastatal
structures, all invoke the necessity of governance that is human
development enhancing.
''Historically, governments have not been friends of the poor,
indeed, very much the opposite. Governments have normally been
part of the structures of power and inequality that have oppressed
the poor rather than helped them.
The growth of democracy in the 20th century has begun to change
this. Governments are increasingly exposed to public scrutiny and
need to renew their mandate to gain public support at periodic
elections. Even now, structures of governance are barely friendly
to the poor,'' said Desai.
The well-off still have the resources -- intellectual and
financial -- to capture the state and government policies to serve
their purpose.
''Good political governance is at the heart of the relationship
between poverty and governance,'' he says.
But ''there is still a lingering debate about the virtues of
authoritarian rule in the removal of poverty, but such debates
define poverty only in terms of material consumption levels,
neglecting human rights''.
While there are successful examples of one party democracies in
alleviating poverty -- China being the leading instance if not the
only one -- it is not a choice open to many countries,'' said
Desai.
''Governance, in many ways, has to first avoid exacerbating the
problem that poor households face. The conflicts inherent in any
society between the rich and powerful groups and the poor must be
understood.
"There is no natural harmony in societies. Democracy is a
weapon in favour of the poor but it is has to be deployed with
imagination... what is important is that governance should not
make their lives worse, but try and make them better,'' noted
Desai.
''Democracy is no vaccination against poverty. Good governance
is pro-poor governance which means accountability and
transparency,'' said Cassam Uteem, president of Mauritius who also
addressed the Democracy Forum.
''If there is no democracy and accountability, poverty
alleviation programmes are unsuccessful. They can't take off the
ground,'' said Uteem. ''Officials must be made accountable between
elections.''
While accountable governance may not rapidly reduce poverty, or
stimulate development, noted Said Adejumobi of the centre for
African Studies, University of Cape Town in South Africa, it will
create a context for the empowerment of the poor.
''Empowerment will allow the poor an opportunity to reorganise
their lives, tap the avenues and possibilities available within
the state structure and participate in the development process,
said Adejumobi. (END/IPS/lm/sm/00)
Origin: Harare/DEVELOPMENT/
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[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
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