Democracy has almost become the untouchable right of people fortunate enough to live in developed countries. But is democracy always the best system? How much realistic discussion has taken place regarding the nature of democracy – both the strengths AND weaknesses?
Chinese academics have broached the subject and expressed some of their reservations. An article written by Zhang Weiying, the director of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University takes on topics which would be considered extremely politically incorrect in the West. He addresses issues such as mob-rule, the relationship between democracy and economics, political interference from the courts and the rule of law, and the importance of the middle class with regards to freedom and stability. The middle class has been a buffer between the “have’s” and the “have not’s”. Therefore it stands to reason that a strong middle-class equals a strong democracy, ensuring that the rich do not exploit the poor or that the poor do not have too many reasons to revolt. History bears witness to both scenarios with disastrous consequences to the affected society. One only has to see what happened in France during the French revolution. Stability in the middle class is only achieved through a stable and mature market economy.
Zhang Weiying advocates marketisation first:
“Thus, marketization of the economy is the most urgent task. If a country endeavours to establish political democracy and takes its benefits for granted before marketising its economy in the real sense, the public will look to governments at different levels to solve the problems that they actually could settle themselves”.
He goes on to say:
“There is not much sense in immediately reforming governments’ functions and efficiency through radical democratization, because history shows success is hard to come by this way. Almost every surviving democracy that was established before the establishment of market economy has gone through a bumpy and treacherous road. The corollary is: To avoid the treacherous journey before realizing political democracy, a country has to marketise its economy completely”.
It may well be that stable economic growth is necessary for democracy to succeed. The Soviet Union collapsed largely because of its poor fiscal policies. Democracy seems to have triumphed because it delivers wealth. Yet democracy does not automatically guarantee growth. Other systems may be better and more efficient.