Third World Governments Under Fire

By: Defencewire

(October, 13, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour is currently in Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of Human Rights Violations. Her visit follows months of international criticism and pressure exerted on the Sri Lankan government and its Law Enforcement Agencies to end the alleged violations. Pro-LTTE organizations have supported this move. The argument for Human Rights violations can also be used to describe state failure. In western concepts, state failure is the result of a breakdown in democracy. This can be a very narrow assumption since the pressures excerted on Third World governments are largely understudied in western democratic theory.

Western theorists looking at conflicts in Third World countries and the so-called ‘challenges to democracy’ that they pose, have devised several models to resolve such conflicts. Arend Lijphart is one such theorist who has developed a Consociational Democracy model for ‘deeply divided societies’. Consociationalism is essentially ‘an agreement between the leaders of each bloc in a divided society to share government, involving ‘grand coalition, segmental autonomy, proportionality, and minority veto’ (Lijphart, 2000, p. 228). Lijphart (1994, p. 222) believes consociationalism is ‘the only workable type of democracy in deeply divided societies.’

In many western countries with Direct Democracies or Liberal Democracies, democratic processes involve consensus between all segments of the population. However, in aggregate models of democracy, pluralism of interest takes precedence. This essentially means that the majority overrules the rest and their decisions become policy/law. Aggregate models of democracy and Representative Systems of democracy govern many Western countries which have been fortunate to avoid violent conflict since the end of WWII. But, for the same theorists, democracy in deeply divided societies means power sharing with minorities, proportional representation and minority veto.

In many of these theories of democracy, governments in Third World democracies are seen as a part of the problem and not as a part of the solution. Third World governments are seen as an obstacle to democracy, sometimes having a ‘monopoly on power and violence and using it to impose market liberalization, "ethnic" nationalism, or bureaucratic authoritarianism’. While these observations are generally true of many Third World Governments, the role of such states can sometimes be grossly underrated. Governments in Third World Countries ‘often intervene to address inequalities and protect the rights of poor/marginalized people and minorities against private interests and majoritarian power. And it frequently plays an important part in directing and monitoring foreign multinational investment. Addressing the role of the Third World state is, therefore, important to any democratic theory’ (Kapoor 2002).

Another important factor that is often ignored is the overall vulnerability of Third World Governments to the effects of Transnational Governance. A lack of democratic transnational institutions results in ‘the loss of national control resulting from a host of occurrences--the extraterritorial powers of multinational corporations, the activities of transnational actors (NGOs, multilateral and international organizations)’ etc. (Kapoor 2002). For example, the power and influence exercised by International Human Rights Groups, the United Nations etc could harm Sri Lanka more than developed countries accused of the same violations. The diplomatic power of the United Nations system could overwhelm Sri Lanka internationally but would be helpless against powerful western countries.

-Lijphart, Arend. 1994. Prospects for Power Sharing in the New South Africa. In Andrew
Reynolds, ed., Election ’94 South Africa: An Analysis of the Results, Campaign and Future Prospects. New York: St. Martin’s.

-Lijphart, Arend. 2000. Varieties of Nonmajoritarian Democracy. 225-46 in Markus M. L.
Crepaz, Thomas A. Koelble, and David Wilsford, eds., Democracy and Institutions: The Life Work of Arend Lijphart. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

-Kapoor, Ilan. 2002. Deliberative Democracy or Agonistic Pluralism? The Relevance of the Habermas-Mouffe Debate for Third World Politics. Alternatives, 27: 459-87.