The Over-rated Democracy (Essay Sample)

The Over-rated Democracy
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Institution
The Over-rated Democracy
Over the years, many countries in the world have engaged in fostering democracy. The ideology, which started in the late 1980s, brought with it a lot of optimism concerning the future of the unfolding global democratic revolution (Sniderman & Highton, 2011). The “Democratization wave” promised the world more transparent and legitimate governments, and this is what has become the game in the political world, up to the present day. Many countries in the world, especially the leading western nations have come forth to champion for democracy asserting that it is the only way, through which countries can realize the solutions to liberal society and political conflicts. Most of these countries feel that they are enjoying the fruit of democracy and hence they feel that they have the duty to encourage democratization, through their foreign policies, in the nations, which have not yet benefited from the dogma. However, with the recent events, particularly, in the Middle East and some parts of the North Africa, while the “preachers of democracy” continue to adhere to the assumption, there is clear evident that democracy is over-rated (Scruton, 2013). A democratic nation cannot experience civil war within its border or encounter conflicts when choosing its government.
In the past, when the spirit of democracy was at its infancy, the ideology was used as the weapon to fight totalitarianism in the world (Miroff et al., 2011). At the time, most of the countries, which had not adopted the spirit of democracy, were characterized by oppression and tyranny governments, which violated the freedom and rights of citizens of such countries, especially in most of the communist states. To some extent, democracy came to liberate such nations and to give freedom and enjoyment of human rights back to the people. Although, the democracy revolution could be viewed as tactical Cold War, with totalitarianism, it transformed the political arena of the world, where citizens of any country could feel powerful enough to determine their own future through the selection of the most desired political leaders (Scruton, 2013).
However, in the recent years, democracy has become the biggest threat to human rights. With its advocacy to multi-parties states and political freedoms, many people can now stand for political elections (Sniderman & Highton, 2011). As seen in some countries in the Middle East, some parties backed up by certain community beliefs, after winning elections, they impose certain ways of life, to people, which in most cases happen to violate people’s principles and beliefs. For instance, forcing citizens to practice a certain religion or to avoid westernization, as a way to preserve a country’s culture, is against the principle of human rights and freedom.
There is no way in which democracy is thriving in the world while many countries experience internal conflicts. In consideration to the revolutions experienced in some of the Middle East countries such as Egypt, in the recent time, democracy has shown its verge to losing its grip in the modern worl...