New York Times U.N. Report Says New Democracies Falter July 24, 2002 By BARBARA CROSSETTE UNITED NATIONS, July 23 - The United Nations is warning this week that gains made with the emergence of dozens of democracies over the past decade now risk being reversed, with authoritarian leaders manipulating elections and millions losing faith in democratic systems. In dozens of nations, democratic culture - allowing room for political opposition, a free press and robust citizens' action groups - is failing to develop or is being stifled, a report to be released on Wednesday concludes. The study, "Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World," also found that economic slowdowns in many countries add to a popular perception that democracies cannot deliver better lives. "Since 1980, 81 countries have moved into the democratic column and, indeed, some 33 military governments have been replaced by civilian governments," said Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the United Nations Development Program, which published the report. In comments to reporters last week, he added that 140 of about 200 countries have held multiparty elections. "The concern is that one multiparty election does not a democracy make," he said. "The international cheerleaders for democracy have underestimated what it takes to build a functioning, properly rooted democracy." The program's annual Human Development Report was created in 1990 to measure the progress of nations not in dry economic statistics but in the lives of ordinary citizens. Over the objections of some governments, in rich as well as poor countries, the report has become increasingly pointed in its criticisms of political chicanery, corruption and human rights abuses. The report ranks countries by quality of life, based largely on life expectancy, education and personal incomes. This year Norway ranks first, as it did last year, followed by Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Australia and the United States. The countries at the bottom of the index are all sub-Saharan African. Sierra Leone, where life expectancy stands at barely 39 years, is worst, followed by Niger, Burundi, Mozambique and Burkina Faso. The report will be available at www.undp.org. Choosing democracy as its focus this year, the report concluded that although a majority of the world's people live in at least nominal democracies, in 106 countries political freedoms and civil rights are limited, and, since 1990, civil wars have cost 3.6 million lives. About 2.8 billion of the world's 6 billion people live on less than $2 a day. More than 60 countries have lower per capita incomes now than they did in 1990. "Democracy doesn't seem to be responding to the real agenda of the world's poor," Mr. Malloch Brown said. The report says that money politics serving special interest groups is of concern to voters in democracies as divergent as the United States, where corporate contributions rose to $1.2 billion in the 2000 election, and India, where 80 percent of funds for major political parties in a 1996 election came from large corporations. Voter turnout seems to be declining everywhere, the report found. Polls often show a dwindling confidence in democracy and the free market, most recently in Latin America, the report said. The failure of rich nations to expand free trade rapidly enough to make a difference to struggling economies is a factor in this, United Nations officials say. Sometimes, the report found, new democratic hopes unmet by elected governments lead to public disgust for the system and regression to military rule. Experts often cite the example of Pakistan, where corrupt and inefficient elected governments in the 1990's were exposed and hammered by a free press. One result was little public opposition to the takeover of government by Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 1999. More recently in Zimbabwe, a suspect election has contributed to a precipitous economic slide and laid the ground for political strife. Looking around the world, the 2002 Human Development report found banks, courts and government institutions under strain, often because of corruption or political pressures. It found electoral processes subverted by fraud and heavy-handed politics. Perhaps sensing their vulnerability, many governments are asking the United Nations Development Program for more help in handling law and order. The organization, which is involved in training police officers in Afghanistan, Mozambique and Haiti, will spend 60 percent of its aid budget this year on supporting what is generally called "good governance" - the proper functioning of democratic institutions, including parliaments. Only a few decades ago, the bulk of the money went to more traditional development projects like drilling wells or aiding local public services. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/24/international/24DEMO.html?ex=1029279781&ei=1&en=e10e4d9bf0ad38d7
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 24 2002 - 00:00:03 EDT