Welcome to World Citizen! As a first post, I think it might be helpful to give an overview of my perspective on international politics, particularly, on the importance of making progress on obtaining real elections in all countries. I believe, the story of the next period can be that the democratic world consolidates our advantages while the last dictatorships collapse of their own inherent weakness and by the hands of their own people. The Russian people are now following in the footsteps of the Arab Spring and the remaining dictatorships of the world are all susceptible to the same pressures that brought down Mubarak and Qaddafi.
World Citizen Journal
Despite the media’s astonishing total lack of discussion on the topic, the world is informally polarized into two camps, each representing different forms of government, whether we acknowledge it or not. The division between the two camps marks the very real separation between free people and not. The democratic camp includes most of North and South America, Europe, India, Japan and several other large democratic enclaves in Africa and Asia. In the other camp lies dictatorship, the source of the great majority of the modern world’s instability and division. To ensure stability and open opportunities for economic growth, the democratic world should exploit the immense strength and diversity of democracy across the world today, in 2012, with the intent to build worldwide, lasting democratic peace. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of the developing world, and now the Arab Spring, the chance for a world in which democratic nations form the majority of world population is at hand.
There is no better illustration of the democratic strength than the “Map of Freedom in the World” published annually since 1972 by Freedom House – it is pasted below. Remember that three hundred years ago, the democratic camp did not exist. In 2012, through much progress, we can rightfully claim nearly half of the world’s population as living under the stability of a democratic government. This represents progress on a colossal scale, unimaginable to those who first imagined modern democratic government.
This is the story of the world ahead in 2012. The Arabs have broken the wall of fear starting in North Africa and democratically elected politicians will begin to form governments based on constitutions. At the same time, Russians have shown courage to protest for their right to elections and Chinese protests, though regional, are growing and the secretive and dangerous transition to new figureheads of the government will test the stability of China this year. It is inevitable that the era of iPhones, Twitter and Skype marks the beginning of the end for dictatorship.
World Democracy Needed
According to Freedom House, the world at the beginning of 2011 was 43% democratic and only 35% non-democratic. If any of these popular movements is able to set up democracies it will lead to a wholly unprecedented situation where the majority of the world’s population lives in countries with democracy.
This will be a definitive time for world history. This blog will follow the progress of democracy with an international focus and hopefully offer some helpful thinking. With Kim Jong Il and Muammar Gaddafi dead while the Burmese regime begins reforms, perhaps we can plan a policy in the democratic world going forward of more support for democratization and make the world aware of how far we have come and the final peace we can attempt to achieve.
The following is from 2012. Take a look at the Freedom House website for the most recent map. The changes to this map represent history being written. It is a.3 more representative look at the modern world than the map they show you in grade school.
Leave a Reply