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SOCIAL SCIENCE

Textbook in Political Science

for Class IX

2015-16(19/01/2015)

First Edition

March 2006 Phalguna 1927

ReprintedJanuary 2007 Magha 1928

January 2008 Magha 1929

December 2008 Pausa 1930

January 2010 Magha 1931

November 2010 Kartika 1932January 2012 Magha 1933

November 2012 Kartika 1934

December 2013 Agrahayana 1935

December 2014 Pausa 1936

PD 480T MJ

© National Council of Educational

Research and Training, 2006

`̀̀̀̀ 75.00

Printed on 80 GSM paper with NCERT

watermark

Published at the Publication Division by theSecretary, National Council of EducationalResearch and Training, Sri Aurobindo Marg,New Delhi 110 016 and printed at Jagan NathIndustries, C-146 (Back side), NarainaIndustrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi 110 028

ISBN 81-7450-537-7

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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q The correct price of this publication is the price printed on this page, Any revised

price indicated by a rubber stamp or by a sticker or by any other means is incorrectand should be unacceptable.

OFFICES OF THE PUBLICATIONDIVISION, NCERT

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Cover and Layout

Oroon Das

SketchesRajeev Kumar

Cartoons

Irfan Khan

The figures on the cover have been taken

from the cartoons of –

R.K. Laxman

Mario Miranda

Harish Chandra Shukla(Kaak)

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FOREWORD

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005, recommends thatchildren’s life at school must be linked to their life outside the school. This

principle marks a departure from the legacy of bookish learning which

continues to shape our system and causes a gap between the school, homeand community. The syllabi and textbooks developed on the basis of NCF

signify an attempt to implement this basic idea. They also attempt todiscourage rote learning and the maintenance of sharp boundaries between

different subject areas. We hope these measures will take us significantly

further in the direction of a child-centred system of education outlined inthe National Policy on Education (1986).

The success of this effort depends on the steps that school principals andteachers will take to encourage children to reflect on their own learning and

to pursue imaginative activities and questions. We must recognise that given

space, time and freedom, children generate new knowledge by engaging withthe information passed on to them by adults. Treating the prescribed textbook

as the sole basis of examination is one of the key reasons why other resourcesand sites of learning are ignored. Inculcating creativity and initiative is

possible if we perceive and treat children as participants in learning, not as

receivers of a fixed body of knowledge.These aims imply considerable change in school routines and mode of

functioning. Flexibility in the daily time-table is as necessary as rigour inimplementing the annual calendar so that the required number of teaching

days is actually devoted to teaching. The methods used for teaching and

evaluation will also determine how effective this textbook proves for makingchildren’s life at school a happy experience, rather than a source of stress or

boredom. Syllabus designers have tried to address the problem of curricularburden by restructuring and reorienting knowledge at different stages with

greater consideration for child psychology and the time available for teaching.

The textbook attempts to enhance this endeavour by giving higher priorityand space to opportunities for contemplation and wondering, discussion in

small groups, and activities requiring hands-on experience.The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

appreciates the hard work done by the textbook development committee

responsible for this book. We wish to thank the Chairperson of the advisorygroup in Social Sciences, Professor Hari Vasudevan and the Chief Advisors

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for this book, Professor Yogendra Yadav and Professor Suhas Palshikar for

guiding the work of this committee. Several teachers contributed to thedevelopment of this textbook; we are grateful to their principals for making

this possible. We are indebted to the institutions and organisations whichhave generously permitted us to draw upon their resources, material and

personnel. We are especially grateful to the members of the National

Monitoring Committee, appointed by the Department of Secondary andHigher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development under the

Chairmanship of Professor Mrinal Miri and Professor G.P. Deshpande, fortheir valuable time and contribution. As an organisation committed to

systemic reform and continuous improvement in the quality of its products,

NCERT welcomes comments and suggestions which will enable us toundertake further revision and refinement.

Director

New Delhi National Council of Educational20 December 2005 Research and Training

iv

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A LETTER FOR YOU

Dear teachers and parents,

‘Civics is boring’. You may have heard this from your students or your child.You may have felt that they had a point. Syllabi of Civics in our country

tend to focus on formal institutions of government. The textbooks are full ofconstitutional, legal and procedural details, presented in a dry and abstract

manner. No wonder children experience disconnect between the theory they

read in the textbook and what they see in real life around them. This isperhaps what makes Civics ‘boring’ for young adults in a country otherwise

full of passion for politics.The present textbook is a small step towards changing this. The impetus

came from the National Curriculum Framework 2005 that provided the space

and opportunity to bring about this basic change. The foreword to this bookby the Director of the NCERT explains the philosophy of the new curriculum.

It meant a complete overhaul of the traditional Civics syllabi. The change inthe name – from Civics to Political Science – reflects the shift in the focus. The

new syllabi recognise that the student at this stage is aware of and needs to

know more about politics. Accordingly, the students in classes IX and X willbe offered an introduction to various facets of politics. Democracy is the

window through which they get to look at the theory and the practice ofpolitics.

With this textbook you are going to take the students on a tour of a

museum of contemporary democracy. You will first take them quicklythrough a series of stories from different parts of the world. Once they develop

a sense and feel of democracy, you can ask some reflective questions: whatis democracy? Why democracy? With this clarity you can take them to a

gallery on constitutions. An understanding of what and how of the

constitutions would prepare them for an exhibition on three aspects ofdemocratic politics: elections, institutions and rights. You may encounter

many contentious themes during this tour. Our attempt here is not to handover a definite opinion to the students but to enable them to think on their

own.

This textbook is meant to help the students enjoy this tour and to assistyou in guiding them. It does not merely inform the students. It encourages

them to think on their own. It interacts with them through questions, moves

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them with stories and pictures and tickles them with cartoons. It helps you

in reviewing their progress and in getting them involved with activities. Allthese features have meant taking more space than used to be the case earlier.

It is precisely to reduce the information load that the book takes more pages.Please do read ‘How to use this book’ on the following pages to be able to

use these features of the book. The tour will continue in the textbook for class

X and will focus more on the working of democracy. We hope this tour willcreate interest in them to understand politics more carefully and to help them

become active and participant citizens.This hope of ours rests on you. That is why this book makes more

demands on you. You may have to learn more about new names, events and

places. You may face questions that the textbook does not answer. You mayhave to guide the students through sensitive and passionate debates that

naturally arise when we discuss politics. Just when you begin to feel tired orirritated, do entertain a thought. When your student asks a question that

you find difficult to answer, when she seeks information that is not easy to

find or expresses an opinion that you don’t approve of, this may actually bea sign of your success as a teacher or a parent. As we all know, getting

students to question is critical to their learning process both as a studentand as citizens of a democracy. This is what the present book tries to cultivate.

The desire to get rid of the ‘boring Civics’ tag brought together, perhaps for

the first time in our country, a group of political scientists, school teachers andeducationists to think about how to teach politics to our next generation. You

can read about this group, the Textbook Development Committee, on pagexii. All these colleagues spared their valuable time and mental space for this

unscheduled event in their academic calendar. Professor Krishna Kumar,

Director NCER T, not only dragged some of us into this pleasant duty butalso supported us at every stage. Professor Hari Vasudevan and Professor

Gopal Guru provided this experiment the protection it needed. ProfessorMrinal Miri, Professor G. P. Deshpande and other members of the National

Monitoring Committee offered valuable inputs and criticisms. The experiment

gained many friends on the way: Ambassador Jorge Heine, Arvind Sardana,Aditya Nigam, Suman Lata and Chandni Khanduja read different parts of the

draft and provided valuable inputs. At many points it drew upon Lokniti researchprogramme and Lokniti network of the Centre for the Study of Developing

Societies for intellectual and logistic resources. Above all, this experiment drew

upon the insights and energy of Alex M. George, Pankaj Pushkar and ManishJain – three young educationists committed to a radical pedagogy — who

taught us how to think about the challenge of school education. Designer OroonDas and cartoonist Irfan Khan and copy editor Devyani Onial helped us turn

the idea of this book into a reality.

We sincerely hope that you and the students would enjoy this book andperhaps look at politics as something valuable, something worth taking

seriously, something worth studying. We look forward to your feedback.

K. C. Suri Yogendra Yadav

ADVISOR Suhas Palshikar

CHIEF ADVISORS

vi

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How to use this book?

OVERVIEW comes at the beginning of each chapter. You can use it to understand

the purpose of the chapter and how it links with the rest of the book. It also

helps you explain the rationale behind the different sections of the chapter. Ifyou are in doubt about what to teach, what to emphasise and what kind of

questions to ask, please do refer back to the overview.

Sections and Sub-sections help you break the chapter into small bits that

you can take up one by one. Each chapter is usually divided into foursections, each of which you can complete within about three periods. Section

Heading(s) are numbered and announce the beginning of a fresh theme withinthe chapter. Sub-section heading(s) provide convenient breaks for you to

sum up one point and move to the next. Boxes are very much part of the

main text and are meant to be taught. They provide additional informationor analysis that requires a little detour.

Each chapter begins with one or more real life stories or imagined dialogues.

This is to create an interest and understanding of some central issues

discussed in the chapter. Sometimes smaller stories or examples are used tolead the student into a section or sub-section. Please do tell this story in all

its details. If you can, please add more details to those given here. You don’tneed to bother very much if the student does not grasp the full significance

of the story at this stage. As the chapter develops, it draws upon from the

initial story and moves from the concrete to the abstract. But please do notask the students to memorise the facts and details of the story like the year,

names of personalities or places, etc. The same applies to any other exampleused in this book. This would kill their interest and defeat the very purpose

of using stories. If the story is good, some details will stay in their memory.

Even if no details stay with them but they can draw the general point fromany such instance, we have succeeded in our task.

Munni and Unni are two characters specially designed for this book by

cartoonist Irfan Khan. The two of them keep appearing every now and then

to ask all kinds of questions: impish, irrelevant, irreverent or even impossible.The questions are sparked off by the points made in the text. But in most

cases you will not find the answer in the textbook itself. Munni and Unni are

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GLOSSARY

exercis

es

there to assure the students that the kind of ‘funny’ thoughts that often

come to their minds are not stupid and to give them the courage to ask suchquestions. They give you the space to take a detour and get into a side

discussion that is often richer than the main one. Please do not use these

questions for evaluation.

You would notice lots of cartoons and pictures in this book. This bringsvisual relief and some fun. But these images are meant to do more. These

are parts of the teaching and learning process. The caption to each visual

provides background information to help the student appreciate the message.It also asks them questions. Please do stop at each cartoon or visual and get

the students involved in reading the message. If you can, please select somemore cartoons from your regional languages and use them. Similarly there

are several maps and many more references to countries unknown to the

students. One of the aims of this book is to expand the student’s imaginationbeyond our own country. Please keep and refer to a recent political map of

the world while teaching this book.

Check your progress questions come usually at the end of every section.

These questions give you an opportunity to ensure that the studentscomprehend the things discussed in that section. These questions also

indicate to you the kind of learning you might wish to emphasise. May weurge you to please make more questions of this kind so that the student can

move away from learning by rote.

Activity may involve getting the students together within the classroom

or doing things outside the classroom. You would need to guide them byassigning tasks to individuals or to groups. The activity and its location

in the chapter is only suggestive. If you can think of an activity that relates

better to students’ own life, please feel free to replace our suggestionwith yours.

Glossary of unfamiliar words or concepts comes at the end of a chapter.

Such a word appears in pink when it is used for the first time. Please

encourage the students to refer to the glossary and learn to use the wordin a different context. But there is no need for them to memorise the

definition given in the glossary.

Exercises come at the end of each chapter. You would notice that there are

many more questions here than used to be the case. You would also noticethat the questions are of a different kind. These questions do not test the

student’s ability to recall and reproduce what they have read in the Chapter.Keeping in with the approach of the new NCF, we have asked questions

that require interpretation, application, analysis, and reasoning based on

what they have learnt in the Chapter. You would need to spend some timewith the students going over these exercises. Please feel free to come up

with new and better questions than suggested here and use those forstudent evaluation.

CHECK

YOUR

PROGRESS

viii

ACTIVITY

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Let us read the newspaper is both an exercise and an activity. You can use

it to ensure that the students can apply what they have learnt to a differentcontext. You can also use it to encourage the habit of newspaper reading.

Where most students have access to news channels on television, you may

supplement or modify the projects suggested here to include watching ofnews and current affair programmes. Here again, if you think a different

project will suit your students’ context and resources, you must be right.Please go ahead.

ix

ACCESSING ONLINE INFORMATION

We are living in an era of information and communication revolution. Printed books, textbooksand the mass media such as newspapers and periodicals have ceased to be the only sourcesof information. Now millions of websites (World Wide Web) provide easy and instant accessto a vast and diverse amount of online information. The World Wide Web has enabled a suddenand extreme decentralisation of information. Since many schools do not possess the latestencyclopaedias and traditional libraries, students and teachers may rely on the Internet toaccess the needed information.

While using this textbook, the teachers and students may sometimes feel that informationprovided in the book is, ‘insufficient’ for learning or classroom teaching. You may want toknow more about cer tain ideas, concepts and events in different countries. We would suggestsome of the ways you can use the Internet for this purpose.

You may find some information in free encyclopaedias like www.en.wikipedia.org orwww.britannica.com Search engines like Google and Yahoo can provide links to websitesthat are specifically dedicated to different topics that you may be interested in.

Similarly, several impor tant newspapers and magazines are available online. Some ofthem allow you to access their archives without payments and registrations. Similarly a fewTV channels also allow you to access information without registrations and payments.

Some other websites would be useful to know more about the various institutionsdiscussed in the text. You could find the links to all the Indian government institutional websitesfrom www.india.gov.in. Specifically http://india.gov.in/directories_gov.php will provide youthe direct link to various institutions. Similarly various international organisations such asUnited Nations, International Monetary Fund (IMF),World Bank, human rights organisationssuch as National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) too have their own websites. Apar tfrom Indian constitution you will also find constitutions of many countries also being availableonline. You can also look at parliaments around the world by following the link from InterParliamentary Union www.ipu.org/english/home.htm

Fur ther you may want to use more images, pictures, or cartoons for discussions. Youwill find them in newspapers that are available online. Apar t from it, you could also look atwww.politicalcar toons.com for this purpose. Similarly, through searching “images” categoryof Google you could locate them.

You may find it useful to visit the websites like www.plato.standford.edu,www.opendemocracy.net, www.brainyencyclopeid.com especially when you wish to getmore clarity on cer tain theoretical aspects or to learn more about politics.

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REQUEST FOR FEEDBACK

How did you like this textbook? What was your experience in reading or using this? What were

the difficulties you faced? What changes would you like to see in the next version of this book?

Write to us on all these and any other matter related to this textbook. You could be a teacher, aparent, a student or just a general reader. We value any and every feedback.

Please write to:

Coordinator (Political Science)

Depar tment of Education in Social Sciences (DESS)NCERT

Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110016.

You could also send an email to [email protected]

2015-16(19/01/2015)

TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

CHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR TEXTBOOKS AT THE SECONDARY LEVELHari Vasudevan, Professor, Department of History, University of Calcutta,Kolkata.

CHIEF ADVISORSYogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies,Delhi

Suhas Palshikar, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration,

University of Pune, Maharashtra

ADVISORK.C. Suri, Professor, Nagarjuna University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh

MEMBERS

Alex M. George, Independent Researcher, Eruvatty, District Kannur, Kerala

Amman Madan, Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and SocialSciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

Malini Ghose, Nirantar, Centre for Gender and Education, New Delhi

Manish Jain, PGT, currently doctoral student, Department of Education,University of Delhi, Delhi

Muzaffar Assadi, Professor, Department of Political Science, Mysore University,Manasgangothri, Karnataka

Niraja Gopal Jayal, Professor, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance,Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Pankaj Pushkar, Lecturer, Directorate of Higher Education, Government ofUttaranchal, Dehradun

Sabyasachi Basu Roychowdhary, Professor, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata

MEMBER-COORDINATOR

Sanjay Dubey, Reader, DESSH, NCERT, New Delhi

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We also acknowledge the contributions of the following members — Anju

Anand, PGT, G. M. Public School, R. K. Puram Sector VII, New Delhi; Amit,

Adharshila School, Village Sakal, Post Office Chatali, District Badwani,

Madhya Pradesh; A. Kamakshi, J. S. S. Public School, Banashankari,

Bangalore, Karnataka; Arvind Mohan, Associate Editor, Dainik Hindustan,

Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi; Anuradha Sen, PG Teacher, Springdales

School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi; P. Jisha, Noble Public School, Manjeri,

District Malapuram, Kerala; Ram Murthy, Independent Researcher and

Teacher, Nangal Slangri, District Una, Himachal Pradesh; Madan Sahani,

PGT, Government Senior Secondary School, R. K. Puram Sector VII, New

Delhi; Usha Rani Tripathy, PGT, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bollaram,

Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh; Yame Pertin, PGT, Government Higher

Secondary School, Doimukh, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. Srimathi

Subbarao, SST Teacher, BGS International School, Nityananda Bangalore.

Thanks are also due to Cagle Cartoons for providing copyrights of the

cartoons of Angel Boligan, Patrick Chappatte, Stephane Peray, Ares, Emad

Hajjaj, Nerilicon, John Trever, Eric Allie, Simanca, M.E. Cohen.

We are also thankful to La Nacion (Chile), South Africa History Online,

GCMMF India, Shagun Jaat (Jabalpur) and PIB (India) for providing us

photographs or images.

We are specially grateful to Shankar, R.K. Laxman, Mario Miranda and

Harish Chandra Shukla (Kaak) for allowing us to use their cartoons. And

special thanks are due to Devyani Onial for her inputs in copy-editing.

2015-16(19/01/2015)

Foreword iii

A Letter for You v

How to Use this Book? vii

CHAPTER 1

DEMOCRACY IN THE 2CONTEMPORARY WORLD

CHAPTER 2

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? 22WHY DEMOCRACY?

CHAPTER 3

CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN 40

CHAPTER 4

ELECTORAL POLITICS 56

CHAPTER 5

WORKING OF INSTITUTIONS 78

CHAPTER 6

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS 96

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2 DDDDDEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRAAAAATITITITITICCCCC P P P P POOOOOLITILITILITILITILITICSCSCSCSCS

OOOOOVERVERVERVERVERVIEVIEVIEVIEVIEWWWWWThis book is about democracy. In this first chapter we see how democracyhas expanded during the last hundred years to more and more countriesin the world. More than half of the independent countries in the worldtoday are democracies. The expansion of democracy has not been smoothand straight. It has seen several ups and downs in different countries. Itstill remains an unstable and uncertain achievement.

This chapter begins with different stories on the making and unmakingof democracy from different parts of the world. These stories are meant togive a sense of what it means to experience democracy and its absence.We present the pattern of the spread of democracy first with a series ofmaps and then with a short history. The focus in this chapter is ondemocracy within a country. But towards the end of the chapter, we takea look at democracy or its absence in the relations among differentcountries. We examine the working of some international organisations.This allows us to ask a big question: are we moving towards democracy atthe global level?

CHAPTER I

Democracyin theContemporaryWorld

3

1.1 T1.1 T1.1 T1.1 T1.1 TWOWOWOWOWO T T T T TALESALESALESALESALES O O O O OFFFFF D D D D DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYYleader of the Socialist Party of Chileand led the Popular Unity coalitionto victory in the presidentialelection in 1970. After beingelected the President, Allende hadtaken several policy decisions to helpthe poor and the workers. Theseincluded reform of the educationalsystem, free milk for children andredistribution of land to the landlessfarmers. He was opposed to foreigncompanies taking away naturalresources like copper from thecountry. The landlords, the rich andthe Church opposed his policies.Some other political parties in Chilealso opposed his government.

MMMMMilitarilitarilitarilitarilitary Cy Cy Cy Cy Coup of 1973oup of 1973oup of 1973oup of 1973oup of 1973On the morning of 11 September1973, the military took over theseaport. The Defence Minister wasarrested by the military when hearrived at his office. The military

President Salvador Allende(wearing a helmet) and hissecurity guards in front of

La Moneda, Chile’sPresidential Palace, on 11

September 1973, hoursbefore his death. What do

you read on everyone’sface in this photograph?

“Workers of my country, I have faith inChile and its future. Other men willovercome this dark and bitter momentwhen treason seeks to prevail. Keep inmind that, much sooner than later, thegreat avenues will again be opened,through which will pass free men toconstruct a better society. Long liveChile! Long live the people! Long live theworkers!

These are my last words, and I amcertain that my sacrifice will not be invain. I am certain that, at the very least,it will be a moral lesson that will punishfelony, cowardice, and treason.”

These are some extracts from thelast speech of Salvador Allende(pronounced Ayen-they). He wasthen the President of Chile, acountry in South America. Thespeech was given on the morning of11 September 1973, the day hisgovernment was overthrown by themilitary. Allende was the founder

Why did PresidentAllende addresshimself mainly to

‘workers’? Whywere the rich

unhappy with him?

DDDDDEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY INININININ THETHETHETHETHE C C C C COOOOONTEMPONTEMPONTEMPONTEMPONTEMPORRRRRARARARARARYYYYY W W W W WOOOOORLDRLDRLDRLDRLD

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commanders asked the President toresign. Allende refused to resign orleave the country. But realising thedanger to the country and to his life,he addressed the people on theradio, part of which we read in thebeginning. Then the militarysurrounded the President’s houseand started bombing it. PresidentAllende died in the military attack. This was the sacrifice he was talkingabout in his last speech. Agovernment elected by people wasoverthrown by the military throughconspiracy and violence.

What took place in Chile on 11September 1973 was a militarycoup. General Augusto Pinochet(pronounced Pinoshe), an Armygeneral, led the coup. Thegovernment of the United States ofAmerica was unhappy with Allende’srule and is known to have supportedand funded activities that led to thecoup. Pinochet became thePresident of the country and ruledit for the next 17 years. From agovernment that was elected by thepeople, the power shifted to the

President Michelle Bacheletaddressing her supportersafter her victory in thepresidential election inJanuary 2006. From thisphotograph do you noticeany difference between anelection rally in Chile and inIndia?

Did the army haveany legal right toarrest the defenceminister of thecountry? Shouldthe army have thepower to arrest anycitizen?

military officers. They could do asthey wished and no one couldquestion them. Thus a militarydictatorship was established inChile. Pinochet’s governmenttortured and killed several of thosewho supported Allende and thosewho wanted democracy to berestored. These included GeneralAlberto Bachelet of the Chilean AirForce and many other officers whorefused to join the coup. GeneralBachelet’s wife and daughter wereput in prison and tortured. Morethan 3,000 people were killed by themilitary. Many more were reported‘missing’. No one knows whathappened to them.

A C T I V I T Y

Locate and shade Chile on the map. Whichstate in our country has a shape similar toChile?

Follow the newspaper for one month and collectnews items related to any country in LatinAmerica. Did you find the news coverageadequate?

©La

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Chi

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5

RRRRRestestestestesto ro ro ro ro raaaaation of Dtion of Dtion of Dtion of Dtion of Democremocremocremocremocra ca ca ca ca cyyyyyPinochet’s military dictatorshipcame to an end after he decided tohold a referendum in 1988. He feltconfident that in this referendum,the people would say ‘yes’ to hiscontinuing in power. But the peopleof Chile had not forgotten theirdemocratic traditions. Their vote wasa decisive ‘no’ to Pinochet. This ledto Pinochet losing first his politicaland then his military powers. Thehope Allende expressed in his lastaddress was realised: felony,cowardice and treason were finallypunished. Political freedom wasrestored. Since then Chile has heldfour presidential elections in whichdifferent political parties haveparticipated. Slowly, the army’s rolein the country’s government hasbeen eliminated. The electedgovernments that came to powerordered inquiries into Pinochet’srule. These inquiries showed that hisgovernment was not only verybrutal, but also very corrupt.

Do you remember a little referencemade earlier to General Bachelet’sdaughter who was imprisoned andtortured along with her mother?That girl, Michelle Bachelet(pronounced Mishel Bashelet), waselected President of Chile in January2006. A medical doctor and amoderate socialist, Michelle becamethe first woman to be a DefenceMinister in Latin America. In thepresidential elections she defeated

one of Chile’s richest men. In thisphotograph of her victory speech,she is saying to her supporters:

“Because I was the victim of hatred, Ihave dedicated my life to reverse thathatred and turn it into understanding,tolerance and — why not say it — intolove.”

DDDDDemocremocremocremocremocra ca ca ca ca cy in Py in Py in Py in Py in PolandolandolandolandolandLet us turn to another event, thistime from Poland, in 1980. At thattime Poland was ruled by the PolishUnited Workers’ Party. This was oneof the many communist parties thatruled in several countries of EastEurope at that time. In thesecountries no other political partywas allowed to function. The peoplecould not freely choose the leadersof the communist party or thegovernment. Those who spokeagainst the leaders or the party orthe government were put in prison.The government in Poland wassupported and controlled by thegovernment of the Soviet Union(USSR), a vast and powerfulcommunist state.

On 14 August 1980, the workersof Lenin Shipyard in the city ofGdansk went on a strike. Theshipyard was owned by thegovernment. In fact all the factoriesand big property in Poland wereowned by the government. Thestrike began with a demand to takeback a crane operator, a womanworker, who was unjustly dismissed

Poland is famous for itsposter art. Most of the

posters of Solidarity carriedthis special way of writing

‘Solidarnosc’. Can you findsimilar examples of posterart or wall writing in Indian

politics?


Lech Walesa


from service. This strike was illegal,because trade unions independentof the ruling party were not allowedin Poland. As the strike continued,a former electrician of the shipyard,Lech Walesa (pronounced LekWalesha), joined the strikers. He wasdismissed from service in 1976 fordemanding higher pay. Walesa soonemerged as the leader of the strikingworkers. The strike began to spreadacross the whole city. Now theworkers started raising largerdemands. They wanted the right toform independent trade unions. Theyalso demanded the release of politicalprisoners and an end to censorshipon press.

The movement became so popularthat the government had to give in.The workers led by Walesa signed a21-point agreement with thegovernment that ended their strike.The government agreed to recognisethe workers’ right to formindependent trade unions and theirright to strike. After the Gdanskagreement was signed, a new tradeunion called Solidarity (Solidarnoscin Polish) was formed. It was the firsttime an independent trade unionwas formed in any of the communiststates. Within a year, Solidarityswept across Poland and had aboutone crore members. Revelations ofwidespread corruption andmismanagement in the governmentmade matters worse for therulers. The government, led byGeneral Jaruzelski, grew anxiousand imposed martial law inDecember 1981. Thousands ofSolidarity members were put inprison. Freedom to organise, protestand express opinions was onceagain taken away.

Another wave of strikes, againorganised by Solidarity, began in1988. This time the Polish

government was weaker, thesupport from Soviet Union uncertainand the economy was in decline.Another round of negotiations withWalesa resulted in an agreement inApril 1989 for free elections. Solidaritycontested all the 100 seats of theSenate and won 99 of them. InOctober 1990, Poland had its firstpresidential elections in which morethan one party could contest. Walesawas elected President of Poland.

A C T I V I T Y

Locate Poland on the map. Write down thenames of the countries that surround it.

Which other East European countries wereruled by communist par ties in the 1980s?Shade them on the map.

Make a list of political activities that you couldnot have done in Poland in 1980s but you cando in our country.

TTTTTwwwwwo Fo Fo Fo Fo Fe ae ae ae ae aturturturturtures of Des of Des of Des of Des of Democremocremocremocremocra ca ca ca ca cyyyyyWe have read two different kinds ofreal life stories. The story from Chilewas of a democratic government ledby Allende being replaced by a non-democratic military government ofPinochet, followed by restoration ofdemocracy. In Poland we tracked thetransition from a non-democraticgovernment to a democraticgovernment.

Let us compare the two non-democratic governments in thesestories. There were many differencesbetween Pinochet’s rule in Chile andthe communist rule in Poland. Chilewas ruled by a military dictator,while Poland was ruled by a politicalparty. The government of Polandclaimed that it was ruling on behalfof the working classes. Pinochetmade no such claim and openlyfavoured big capitalists. Yet bothhad some common features:

Why was anindependent tradeunion so importantin Poland? Why aretrade unionsnecessary?

7

Anita made a list of the features of all the five governments that we have discussed so far. But somehowthe list got mixed up. Now she has a list of many features but she does not remember which featureapplies to which government. Can you help her by writing the correct feature under the name of thegovernment in the table below? Remember, some of these features may apply to more than onegovernment and would need to be written separately under each of these.Features:

Chile Chile Chile Poland PolandAllende Pinochet Bachelet Jaruzelski Walesa

The people could not choose orchange their rulers.

There was no real freedom toexpress one’s opinions, formpolitical associations and organiseprotests and political action.

The three democratic governmentsidentified above — Allende’s Chile,Walesa’s Poland and Bachelet’sChile — are different in their approachtowards social and economic matters.Allende preferred government controlon all big industries and theeconomy. Walesa wanted the marketto be free of government interference.Bachelet stands somewhere in themiddle on this issue. Yet these threegovernments shared some basicfeatures. Power was exercised by

governments elected by the peopleand not by the army, unelectedleaders or any external power. Thepeople enjoyed some basic politicalfreedoms.

From these two stories let us drawa rough way to identify a democracy.Democracy is a form of governmentthat allows people to choose theirrulers. In a democracy: only leaders elected by people

should rule the country, and people have the freedom to express

views, freedom to organise andfreedom to protest.

We shall come back to this questionin Chapter Two and develop adefinition of democracy. We shall alsonote some features of a democracy.

WidespreadcorruptionCriticis

m of the

government not

allowed

Ruler electedby the people

The president

was once a

political prisonerGovernmentowned allindustries More than oneparty exists

Ruler notelected by the

peopleMissing peoplePeople enjoyed

basic political

freedomsForeignintervention indomestic affairs

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS


Militarydictatorship


1.2 T1.2 T1.2 T1.2 T1.2 THEHEHEHEHE C C C C CHANGINGHANGINGHANGINGHANGINGHANGING M M M M MAPAPAPAPAP OOOOOFFFFF D D D D DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYYTwentieth century was full of thekind of stories we have read above:stories of transition to democracy,of challenges to democracy, ofmilitary coups, of struggles of thepeople to bring back democracy.Was there a pattern to these storiesthat record both the march towardsdemocracy and the setbacks todemocracy? Let us use the basicfeatures we noted earlier andidentify democracies amongdifferent countries of the world.

This is what the three maps shownhere do. Take a look at these threemaps below and find out if there wasa pattern in the way democracieshave evolved in the twentieth century.The first map depicts the countries

that were democratic in 1950, a fewyears after the end of the SecondWorld War. This map also showscountries from this set that hadalready become democratic by 1900.The second map presents a pictureof democratic regimes in 1975, aftermost of the colonies had gainedindependence. Finally, we takeanother leap and look at democraciesin the year 2000, at the beginning ofthe twenty-first century.

As we look at these maps, let usask ourselves some questions. Howhas democracy marched throughthe twentieth century? Is there aclear pattern of expansion? Whendid the expansion take place? Inwhich regions?

MAP 1.1: DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS IN 1900-1950

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN 1900 AND 1950

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN 1950 BUT NOT IN 1900

9

Source: Historical data for these maps is taken from Polity IV Project dataset of Universtiy of Maryland. This dataset defines democracy as existenceof choices about policies and leaders, checks on executive power and guarantee of civil liberties. Here we have used positive ‘Polity’ scores asindicating the existence of democracy. In some cases the scores of dataset have been modified. For details see http://www.cidcm.umd.edu


MAP 1.3: DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS IN 2000

MAP 1.2: DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS IN 1975

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN 2000

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN 1975


On the basis of these maps identify up to three countries (in some cases you won’t find three countries) thatwere democratic in these continents for the given years and make a table as given below.

Year Africa Asia Europe Latin America195019752000

Identify some countries from map 1.1 that became democratic between 1900 and 1950. Identify some countries from map 1.1 and 1.2 that were democratic in 1950 and 1975. Identify some European countries from map 1.2 and 1.3 that were democratic in 1975 and 2000. Identify some countries in Latin America that became democratic after 1975.Make a list of big countries that were not democratic in 2000.

CHECKYOURPROGRESS

1.31.31.31.31.3 PPPPPHAHAHAHAHASESSESSESSESSES INININININ THETHETHETHETHE E E E E EXPXPXPXPXPANSIANSIANSIANSIANSIOOOOONNNNNOOOOOFFFFF D D D D DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY

In Britain, the progress towardsdemocracy started much before theFrench Revolution. But the progresswas very slow. Through theeighteenth and the nineteenthcenturies, series of political eventsreduced the power of monarchy andfeudal lords. The right to vote wasgranted to more and more people.Around the same time as the FrenchRevolution, the British colonies inNorth America declared themselvesindependent in 1776. In the next fewyears these colonies came togetherto form the United States of America.They adopted a democratic

Looking at thesemaps, which perioddo you find mostimportant in theexpansion ofdemocracy? Why?

Let us summarise the main pointsthat emerge from a reading of thesemaps. You need to go back to themaps to answer the question thatcomes after each point.Democracy has expanded

throughout the twentiethcentury. Is it correct to say thatat each point in these maps, thenumber of democratic countries islarger than at the previous pointin time?

Democracy did not spreadevenly in all parts of the world.

It was established first in someregions and then spread to otherregions. Which continents in theworld had a large number ofdemocracies in 1900 and 1950?And which continents did not havealmost any?

While a majority of countries aredemocratic today, there are stilllarge parts of the world that arenot democratic. Which regions inthe world account for most of thecountries that were notdemocracies in 2000?

The BeginningThe BeginningThe BeginningThe BeginningThe BeginningThese maps do not tell us muchabout what happened before thetwentieth century. The story of mod-ern democracy began at least twocenturies ago. You may have readthe chapter on the French Revolu-tion of 1789 in the history book ofthis course. This popular uprisingdid not establish a secure and stabledemocracy in France. Throughoutthe nineteenth century, democracyin France was overthrown and re-stored several times. Yet the FrenchRevolution inspired many strugglesfor democracy all over Europe.

11

constitution in 1787. But here toothe right to vote was limited to veryfew men.

In the nineteenth century strugglesfor democracy often centred roundpolitical equality, freedom and justice.One major demand was the right forevery adult citizen to vote. ManyEuropean countries that werebecoming more democratic did notinitially allow all people to vote. Insome countries only people owningproperty had the right to vote. Oftenwomen did not have the right to vote.In the United States of America, theblacks all over the country could notexercise the right to vote until 1965.Those struggling for democracywanted this right granteduniversally to all adults — men orwomen, rich or poor, white or black.This is called ‘universal adultfranchise’ or ‘universal suffrage’. Thebox here tells us when universalsuffrage was granted in manycountries of the world.

When was universaladult franchise granted?

1893 New Zealand1917 Russia1918 Germany1919 Netherlands1928 Britain1931 Sri Lanka1934 Turkey1944 France1945 Japan1950 India1951 Argentina1952 Greece1955 Malaysia1962 Australia1965 US1978 Spain1994 South Africa

As you can see, by 1900 NewZealand was the only country whereevery adult had voting right. But ifyou go back to the map, you can seemany other countries are marked as‘democracies’ by the beginning of thetwentieth century. These countrieshad by then governments elected bya significant number of people,mostly men, and had grantedpolitical freedom in some measure.Early democracies were establishedin Europe, North America and LatinAmerica.

EEEEEnd of Cnd of Cnd of Cnd of Cnd of ColonialismolonialismolonialismolonialismolonialismFor a very long time most countriesin Asia and Africa were coloniesunder the control of Europeannations. People of the colonisedcountries had to wage struggles toachieve independence. They not onlywanted to get rid of their colonialmasters, but also wished to choosetheir future leaders. Our countrywas one of the few colonies wherepeople carried a nationalist struggleto liberate the country from thecolonial rule. Many of thesecountries became democraciesimmediately after the end of theSecond World War in 1945. Indiaachieved Independence in 1947 andembarked on its journey to transformitself from a subject country to ademocracy. It continues to be ademocracy. Most former colonies didnot have such a good experience.

The case of Ghana, a country inwestern Africa, illustrates the morecommon experience of formercolonies. Ghana used to be a Britishcolony named Gold Coast. It becameindependent in 1957. It was amongthe first countries in Africa to gainindependence. It inspired otherAfrican countries to struggle forfreedom. Kwame Nkrumah(pronounced Enkruma), son of a

Why were womengiven voting rights

much later thanmen in most

countries? Why didthis not happen in

India?


Note: This is only anillustrative list from differentparts of the world. The yearindicates when the principleof one person one vote was

fully realised in thatcountry. The list does not

include those cases wherethe right to vote was

withdrawn later.


goldsmith and himself a teacher,was active in the independencestruggle of his country.

After independence, Nkrumah be-came the first prime minister andthen the president of Ghana. He wasa friend of Jawaharlal Nehru and aninspiration for democrats in Africa.But unlike Nehru, he got himselfelected president for life. Soon af-ter, in 1966, he was overthrown bythe military. Like Ghana, most coun-tries that became democracies aftergaining independence had a mixedrecord. They could not remain de-mocracies for long.

A C T I V I T Y

Locate Ghana in an atlas and then spot it in thethree maps in the previous section. Was Ghanaa democracy in 2000?

Do you think it is good to elect someonePresident for life? Or is it better to hold regularelections after every few years?

RRRRReeeeeccccce ne ne ne ne nt phaset phaset phaset phaset phaseThe next big push towards democracycame after 1980, as democracy wasrevived in several countries of LatinAmerica. The disintegration of theSoviet Union accelerated this process.From the story of Poland we knowthat the then Soviet Union controlledmany of its neighbouring communistcountries in Eastern Europe. Polandand several other countries becamefree from the control of the SovietUnion during 1989-90. They choseto become democracies. Finally theSoviet Union itself broke down in1991. The Soviet Union comprised 15Republics. All the constituentRepublics emerged as independentcountries. Most of them becamedemocracies. Thus the end of Sovietcontrol on East Europe and the breakup of the Soviet Union led to a big

change in the political map of theworld.

In this period major changes alsotook place in India’s neighbourhood.Pakistan and Bangladesh made atransition from army rule todemocracy in 1990s. In Nepal, theking gave up many of his powers tobecome a constitutional monarch tobe guided by elected leaders.However, these changes were notpermanent. In 1999 GeneralMusharraf brought back army rulein Pakistan. In 2005 the new kingof Nepal dismissed the electedgovernment and took back politicalfreedoms that people had won in theprevious decade.

Yet the overall trend in this periodpoints to more and more countriesturning to democracy. This phasestill continues. By 2005, about 140countries were holding multi-partyelections. This number was higherthan ever before. More than 80previously non-democratic countrieshave made significant advancestowards democracy since 1980. But,even today, there are manycountries where people cannotexpress their opinion freely. They

Kwame Nkrumah MemorialPark in Accra, the capital ofGhana. This park wascommissioned in 1992,twenty years after Nkrumahpassed away. What mighthave caused this delay?

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still cannot elect their leaders. Theycannot take big decisions about theirpresent and future life.

One such country is Myanmar,previously known as Burma. Itgained freedom from colonial rule in1948 and became a democracy. Butthe democratic rule ended in 1962with a military coup. In 1990elections were held for the first timeafter almost 30 years. The NationalLeague for Democracy, led by AungSan Suu Kyi (pronounced Soo-chi),won the election. But the militaryleaders of Myanmar refused to stepdown and did not recognise theelection results. Instead, the militaryput the elected pro-democracyleaders, including Suu Kyi, underhouse arrest. Political activistsaccused of even the most trivialoffences have been jailed. Anyonecaught publicly airing views orissuing statements critical of theregime can be sentenced up totwenty years in prison. Due to thecoercive policies of the military-ruled

government in Myanmar, about 6 to10 lakh people in that country havebeen uprooted from their homes andhave taken shelter elsewhere.

Despite being under house arrest,Suu Kyi continued to campaign fordemocracy. According to her: “Thequest for democracy in Burma is thestruggle of the people to live whole,meaningful lives as free and equalmembers of the world community.” Herstruggle has won internationalrecognition. She has also beenawarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Yetthe people in Myanmar are stillstruggling to establish a democraticgovernment in their country.

A C T I V I T Y

Locate Myanmar on an atlas. Which Indianstates border this country?

Write a short essay on the life of Aung SanSuu Kyi.

Collect newspaper reports on the struggle fordemocracy in Myanmar.

What should be thepolicy of the

government ofIndia towards the

military rulers ofMyanmar?


rrrrreeeeeaaaaadddddttttthehehehehe


This cartoonappeared in 2005

when Aung San SuuKyi turned 60. What isthe cartoonist sayinghere? Will the army

rulers feel happy withthis cartoon?

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1. 4 D1. 4 D1. 4 D1. 4 D1. 4 DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY AAAAATTTTT THETHETHETHETHE G G G G GLLLLLOOOOOBBBBBALALALALAL L L L L LEEEEEVELVELVELVELVEL?????After reading about the variousphases of expansion of democracy,a teacher, Mr. Singh, asked thestudents to summarise what theyhad learnt. This is how theconversation took place:

Farida: We have learnt that democracy has beenexpanding to more and more regions andcountries all over the world.

Rajesh: Yes, we live in a better world than before.It seems we are moving towards a worlddemocracy.

Sushmita: World democracy! How can you saythat? I saw a television programme that showedhow the Americans invaded Iraq without anyjustification. The people of Iraq were notconsulted at any stage. How can you call thata world democracy?

Farida: I am not talking about the relationshipbetween different countries. I am only sayingthat more and more countries are becomingdemocratic.

Rajesh: But what is the difference between thetwo? If more and more countries becomedemocratic, isn’t it obvious that the world alsobecomes more democratic? After all the Iraqwar was all about taking democracy to thatcountry.

Sushmita: No, it is not obvious to me.Singh sir: I think we are talking about two very

different things here. Farida spoke aboutestablishment of democratic governments withindifferent countries in the world today. Sushmitaand Rajesh have differences over something else.Their difference is over the relationship amongdifferent countries. It is quite possible, Rajesh,that the rulers of a country who aredemocratically elected by their people may wantto dominate over other countries.

Sushmita: Yes sir. That is exactly what happenedin the case of the war on Iraq.

Surinder: I am confused. How can we talk aboutdemocracy at the global level? Is there anyworld government? Who is the president of theworld? If there is no government, how can itbe democratic or non-democratic?

International OrganisationsInternational OrganisationsInternational OrganisationsInternational OrganisationsInternational OrganisationsLet us respond to the question thatcame up in this conversation: Doesan increase in the number ofdemocratic countries all over theworld automatically lead todemocratic relations amongcountries? Before we do that, let usthink about the point raised bySurinder. There is a government ofIndia, a government of the UnitedStates of America, and so on. Butthere is no government of the world.No government can pass any lawthat will apply to all the people ofthe world. If there is no suchgovernment, if there are no rulersand ruled, how can we apply the twofeatures of democracy here? Thesetwo features, you would recall, werethat the rulers should be elected bythe people and that people shouldhave basic political freedoms.

Should there be aworld government?If yes, who shouldelect it? And, whatpowers should ithave?

This cartoon was publishedin Mexico in 2005 and wastitled ‘International Games’.Which games is thecartoonist talking abouthere? What does the ballsymbolize? Who are theplayers?

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While Surinder is right in a simplesense, we cannot say that thequestion of democracy does not arisehere. There is no single WorldGovernment, but there are manyinstitutions in the world thatperform partially the functions ofsuch a government. Theseorganisations cannot commandcountries and citizens in a way agovernment can, but they do makerules that put limits on whatgovernments can do. Consider thesepoints:Who makes laws and rules to

govern the seas that do not fallwithin the boundaries of any onecountry? Or who takes steps tocontrol environmental degradationthat threatens all the countriestogether. The United Nations (UN)has evolved many Conventions onthese questions that are nowbinding on most countries of theworld. The UN is a globalassociation of nations of the worldto help cooperation ininternational law, security,economic development and socialequity. The UN Secretary Generalis its chief administrative officer.

What happens when a countryattacks another country in anunjust manner? The UN SecurityCouncil, an organ of the UN, isresponsible for maintaining peaceand security among countries. Itcan put together an internationalarmy and take action against thewrongdoer.

Who lends money to governmentswhen they need it? The Interna-tional Monetary Fund (IMF) doesso. The World Bank also givesloans to the governments. Beforelending they ask the concernedgovernment to show all itsaccounts and direct it to makechanges in its economic policy.

Are these decisionsAre these decisionsAre these decisionsAre these decisionsAre these decisionsdemocrdemocrdemocrdemocrdemocraaaaatic?tic?tic?tic?tic?So, there are many institutions atthe world level that perform someof the functions that a worldgovernment would perform. But weneed to know just how democraticthese organisations are. Theyardstick here is whether each ofthe countries has free and equalsay in the decisions that affectthem. In this light let us examinethe organisation of some of theseworld bodies.

Every one of the 193 memberstates (as on 1 September 2012)of the UN has one vote in the UNGeneral Assembly. It meets inregular yearly sessions under apresident elected from among therepresentatives of the membercountries. General Assembly is likethe parliament where all thediscussion takes place. In thatsense the UN would appear to be avery democratic organisation. Butthe General Assembly cannot takeany decision about what actionshould be taken in a conflictbetween different countries.

The fifteen-member SecurityCouncil of the UN takes suchcrucial decisions. The Council hasfive permanent members – US,Russia, UK, France and China. Tenother members are elected by theGeneral Assembly for two-yearterms. The real power is with fivepermanent members. Thepermanent members, especially theUS, contribute most of the moneyneeded for the maintenance of theUN. Each permanent member hasveto power. It means that theCouncil cannot take a decision ifany permanent member says no tothat decision. This system has ledmore and more people andcountries to protest and demandthat the UN becomes moredemocratic.

Should thepermanent

members of theUN be given the

power to veto?



International Monetary Fund (IMF)is one of the biggest moneylendersfor any country in the world. Its 188member states (as on 1 September2012) do not have equal votingrights. The vote of each country isweighed by how much money it hascontributed to the IMF. More than52% of the voting power in the IMFis in the hands of only ten countries(US, Japan, Germany, France, UK,China, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Canadaand Russia). The remaining 178countries have very little say in howthese international organisations takedecisions. The World Bank has asimilar system of voting. The Presidentof the World Bank has always been acitizen of the US, conventionallynominated by the Treasury Secretary(Finance Minister) of the USgovernment.

A C T I V I T Y

Find out more about the history and variousorgans of the United Nations.

Collect any news about the decisions of theWorld Bank and the IMF.

Compare these to the kind ofdemocratic practices that we havebeen discussing in this chapter.What would you say about a countrywhere some persons have apermanent position in the ministryand have the power to stop thedecision of the entire parliament? Ora parliament where five per cent ofthe members hold a majority ofvotes? Would you call thesedemocratic? Most of the globalinstitutions fail to pass the simpletest of democracy that we use fornational governments.

If global institutions are notdemocratic, are they at leastbecoming more democratic thanbefore? Here too the evidence is notvery encouraging. In fact, while

nations are becoming moredemocratic than they were earlier,international organisations arebecoming less democratic. Twentyyears ago there were two big powersin the world: the US and the SovietUnion. The competition and conflictbetween these two big powers andtheir allies kept a certain balance inall the global organisations. After thecollapse of the Soviet Union, the USappears to be the only superpowerin the world. This Americandominance affects the working ofinternational organisations.

This is not to say that there is nourge or move towards globaldemocracy. The urge comes frompeople who get more opportunitiesto come in touch with one another.Over the last few years the people ofdifferent countries have cometogether without their governments’support. They have formed globalorganisations against war andagainst domination of the world bya few countries and businesscompanies. As in the case ofdemocracy within the nations, theinitiative for democracy amongnations has come from the strugglesof the people.



Wolfowitz was asenior official in the

Department ofDefence in the US

(commonly called thePentagon). He was anaggressive supporterof the invasion of Iraq.

The cartooncomments on his

appointment as thePresident of the WorldBank. What does thecartoon tell us about

the relationshipbetween the WorldBank and the US?

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Here are some suggestions to strengthen world democracy. Do you support these changes? Are thesechanges likely to happen? Give your reasons for each of these.More nations should become permanent members of the Security Council. UN General Assembly should become like a world parliament with representatives from each country

in proportion to the population of the country. These representatives should elect a world government. Individual countries should not have armies. The UN should maintain task forces to bring about

peace in case of conflict between nations. A UN President should be elected directly by all the people of the world.

rule in 1932. Three decades laterthere were a series of coups bymilitary officers. Since 1968, it wasruled by Arab Socialist Ba’th Party(the Arabic word Ba’th meansrenaissance). Saddam Hussein, aleading Ba’th party leader, played akey role in the 1968 coup thatbrought the party to power. Thisgovernment abolished traditionalIslamic law and gave women theright to vote and several freedomsnot granted in other west Asiancountries. After becoming thepresident of Iraq in 1979, Saddamran a dictatorial government andsuppressed any dissent oropposition to his rule. He was knownto have got a number of politicalopponents killed and persons ofethnic minorities massacred.

The US and its allies like Britain,alleged that Iraq possessed secretnuclear weapons and other‘weapons of mass destruction’which posed a big threat to theworld. But when a UN team wentto Iraq to search for such weapons,it did not find any. Still the US andits allies invaded Iraq, occupied itand removed Saddam Hussein frompower in 2003. The US installed aninterim government of itspreference. The war against Iraqwas not authorised by the UNSecurity Council. Kofi Annan, theUN Secretary General, said that theUS war on Iraq was illegal.

DDDDDEMOCRACYEMOCRACYEMOCRACYEMOCRACYEMOCRACY INININININ THETHETHETHETHE C C C C CONTEMPORARYONTEMPORARYONTEMPORARYONTEMPORARYONTEMPORARY W W W W WORLDORLDORLDORLDORLD

Democracy promotionDemocracy promotionDemocracy promotionDemocracy promotionDemocracy promotionTake a close look at the twocartoons on this and on the nextpage. These cartoons raise afundamental question related toglobal democracy. Recently, manypowerful countries in the world,particularly the United States ofAmerica, have taken on the task ofdemocracy promotion in the rest ofthe world. They say that propagatingthe values of democracy is notenough. Existing democraciesshould directly intervene incountries that are non-democraticto establish democracy there. Insome cases powerful countries havelaunched armed attack on non-democratic countries. This is whatSushmita was talking about.

Let us see what happened in Iraq.Iraq is a country in Western Asia. Itbecame independent from British

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS



The cartoon “Cactusof Democracy” waspublished in 2004.

What does the cactuslook like here? Who is

gifting it, and towhom? What is the

message?

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A C T I V I T Y

Collect information on the debate related to Iraqwithin the US and the UK. What were the reasonsoriginally offered for the Iraq invasion by thePresident of US and the Prime Minister of UK?What were the reasons offered after the war?

The example of Iraq raises somebasic questions that we need tothink about: Is this the right way to promote

democracy? Should a democraticcountry wage a war and invadeother countries for establishingdemocracy there?

Does external help work in everycase? Or does it work only whenthe people of a nation are activelyengaged in a struggle to make theirsocieties democratic?

Even if external intervention leadsto the establishment of democracyin a country, would it last long?Would it enjoy the support of itscitizens?

Finally, is the use of external forceto gift democracy to the people inkeeping with the spirit ofdemocracy?

Think about these questions in thelight of all that you have learnt inthis chapter.



‘Helping Democracy’was a comment onthe presence of USforces during the

elections in Iraq. Doyou think the cartoon

can apply to manyother situations?

Identify someexamples from thischapter which thiscartoon can help

understand.

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exercises

GLOSSARY

Censorship: A condition under which the freedom of expression is takenaway. Citizens have to take prior permission from the censor authorities of

the government for making a speech or publishing news and views.Anything that the government finds objectionable cannot be published.

Coalition: An alliance of people, associations, parties or nations. This alliancemay be temporary or a matter of convenience.Colony: Territory under the immediate political control of another state.Communist state: A state governed by a communist party without allowingother parties to compete for power. The state controls all the big property andindustry.Coup: A coup d’état (pronounced ku de’ta), or simply a coup, is the suddenoverthrow of a government illegally. It may or may not be violent in nature.The term is French for ‘a sudden blow or strike to a state’.Martial law: A system of rules that takes effect when a military authoritytakes control of the normal administration of justice.Political prisoners: Persons held in prison or otherwise detained, perhapsunder house arrest, because a government considers their ideas, image oractivities as a threat to the authority of the state. Often exaggerated or falsecases are foisted on them and they are kept in detention without followingnormal law.Referendum: A direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to eitheraccept or reject a particular proposal. This may be adoption of a newconstitution, a law or a specific governmental policy.State: Political association occupying a definite territory, having an organisedgovernment and possessing power to make domestic and foreign policies.Governments may change, but the state continues. In common speech, theterms country, nation and state are used as synonyms.Strike: Mass refusal by workers or employees to perform work due to certaingrievances or because of demands not met. In most democratic countries theright to strike is legal.Trade Union: An association of workers for the purpose of maintaining orimproving the conditions of their employment.Veto: The right of a person, party or nation to stop a certain decision or law.The word comes from Latin, which means ‘I forbid’. A veto gives unlimitedpower to stop a decision, but not to adopt one.

1 Which of the following does not lead to the spread of democracy?a Struggle by the peopleb Invasion by foreign countriesc End of colonialismd People’s desire for freedom

2 Which of the following statements is true about today’s world?a Monarchy as a form of government has vanished .b The relationship between different countries has become more

democratic than ever before.c In more and more countries rulers are being elected by the people.d There are no more military dictators in the world.



3 Use one of the following statements to complete the sentence:Democracy in the international organisations requires that …a The rich countries should have a greater say.b Countries should have a say according to their military power.c Countries should be treated with respect in proportion to their

population.d All countries in the world should be treated equally.

4 Based on the information given in this chapter, match the followingcountries and the path democracy has taken in that country.

COUNTRY PATH TO DEMOCRACYa Chile i Freedom from British colonial ruleb Nepal ii End of military dictatorshipc Poland iii End of one party ruled Ghana iv King agreed to give up his powers

5 What are the difficulties people face in a non-democratic country?Give answers drawing from the examples given in this chapter.

6 Which freedoms are usually taken away when a democracy isoverthrown by the military?

7 Which of the following positions can contribute to democracy at theglobal level? Give reasons for your answer in each case.a My country gives more money to international institutions.

Therefore, I want to be treated with more respect and exercisemore power.

b My country may be small or poor. But my voice must be heardwith equal respect, because these decisions will affect my country.

c Wealthy nations will have a greater say in international affairs.They cannot let their interests suffer just because they areoutnumbered by poor nations.

d Big countries like India must have a greater say in internationalorganisations.

8 Here are three opinions heard in a television debate on the strugglefor democracy in Nepal. Which of these do you agree with and why?Guest 1: India is a democracy. Therefore, the Indian government

must support the people of Nepal who are strugglingagainst monarchy and for democracy.

Guest 2: That is a dangerous argument. We would be in the sameposition as the US was in Iraq. Remember, no outside forcecan promote democracy.

Guest 3:But why should we bother about the internal affairs of anothercountry? We should be worried about our business intereststhere, not about democracy. exerc

ises

21DDDDDEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY INININININ THETHETHETHETHE C C C C COOOOONTEMPONTEMPONTEMPONTEMPONTEMPORRRRRARARARARARYYYYY W W W W WOOOOORLDRLDRLDRLDRLD

exercises9 In an imaginary country called Happyland, the people overthrew the

foreign ruler and brought back the old royal family. They said: “Afterall their ancestors were our kings before foreigners started ruling us. It is goodthat we have one strong ruler, who can help us become rich and powerful”.When someone talked about democracy the wise men said it is aforeign idea. Their struggle was to throw the foreigners and theirideas out of the country. When someone demanded freedom for themedia, the elders thought that too much criticism of the ruler wouldnot help them improve their living standards. “After all, the king is sokind and interested in the welfare of all the subjects. Why create problems forhim. Don’t we all want to be happy? ”

After reading the above passage, Chaman, Champa and Chandrumade the following observations:Chaman: Happyland is a democratic country because people were

able to throw out the foreign rulers and bring back theking.

Champa: Happyland is not a democratic country because peoplecannot criticise the ruler. The king may be nice and mayprovide economic prosperity, but a king cannot give ademocratic rule.

Chandru: What people need is happiness. So they are willing to allowtheir new ruler to take decisions for them. If people arehappy it must be a democracy.

What is your opinion about each of these statements? What do youthink about the form of government in this country?

Form different groups in your class and collect different types of information(news clippings, articles, photographs, cartoons, etc.) about struggles fordemocracy in any country that is currently not democratic. Focus on thefollowing questions:

What makes the government non-democratic? What are the main complaints and demands of the people in that

country? How do the existing rulers react to people’s demands? Who are the main leaders of the struggle for democracy?

You could present the information thus collected in various forms: anexhibition, a collage, a report or a wallpaper.


OOOOOVERVERVERVERVERVIEVIEVIEVIEVIEWWWWWThe stories and the analysis in the previous chapter gave us a sense ofwhat democracy is like. There we described some governments asdemocratic and some as non-democratic. We saw how governments insome of those countries changed from one form to the other. Let us nowdraw general lessons from those stories and ask the more basic question:What is democracy? What are its features? This chapter builds on a simpledefinition of democracy. Step by step, we work out the meaning of theterms involved in this definition. The aim here is to understand clearly thebare minimum features of a democratic form of government. After goingthrough this chapter we should be able to distinguish a democratic formof government from a non-democratic government. Towards the end ofthis chapter, we step beyond this minimal objective and introduce a broaderidea of democracy.

In the previous chapter, we have seen that democracy is the mostprevalent form of government in the world today and it is expanding tomore countries. But why is it so? What makes it better than other forms ofgovernment? That is the second big question that we take up in this chapter.

CHAPTER 2

What isDemocracy?WhyDemocracy?

23

2.12.12.12.12.1 WWWWWHAHAHAHAHATTTTT ISISISISIS D D D D DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY?????distinguishes these governmentsfrom Pinochet’s rule in Chile,communist rule in Poland or the laterperiod of Nkrumah’s rule in Ghana?What do these governments have incommon with the military rule inMyanmar? Why do we say that thesegovernments are not democratic?

On the basis of this analysis, writedown some common features of:Democratic governmentsNon-democratic governments

WWWWWhhhhhy defy defy defy defy define democrine democrine democrine democrine democra ca ca ca ca cy ?y ?y ?y ?y ?Before we proceed further, let usfirst take note of an objection byMerry. She does not like this wayof defining democracy and wantsto ask some basic questions.

WWWWWHAHAHAHAHATTTTT ISISISISIS D D D D DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY? W? W? W? W? WHYHYHYHYHY D D D D DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY?????

News items like this appear very often in newspapers.Do they all use the word democracy in the same sense?

In Chapter One we read many storiesfrom different parts of the world.Through these stories we discussedvarious governments andorganisations. We called some ofthese democracies. Others weredescribed as non-democracies. Canyou recall, for each of these countries,something about the governmentsthat were described as democracies?Chile, before and after Pinochet’s

rule Poland, after the fall of communist

ruleGhana, in the early period of

Nkrumah’s governmentWhat do you think is common to

them? Why do we club them all underthe label of democracy? What is it that


Her teacher Matilda Lyngdohresponds to her questions, as otherclassmates join the discussion:Merry: Ma’am, I don’t like this idea. First we

spend one whole chapter discussing democ-racies in different parts of the world and thenwe want to find out the meaning of democ-racy. I mean logically shouldn’t we have ap-proached it the other way round? Shouldn’t themeaning have come first and then the example?

Lyngdoh Madam: I can see your point. But thatis not how we reason in everyday life. We usewords like pen, rain or love. Do we wait to havea definition of these words before we usethem? Come to think of it, do we have cleardefinition of these words? It is only by using aword that we understand its meaning.

Merry: But then why do we need definitions at all?Lyngdoh Madam: We need a definition only when

we come across a difficulty in the use of a word.We need a definition of rain only when we wishto distinguish it from, say, drizzle or cloudburst.The same is true for democracy. We need a cleardefinition only because people use it for differ-ent purposes, because very different kinds ofgovernments call themselves democracy.

Ribiang: But why do we need to work on a defi-nition? The other day you quoted Abraham Lin-coln to us: “Democracy is government of thepeople, by the people and for the people”. We inMeghalaya always ruled ourselves. That is ac-cepted by everyone. Why do we need to changethat?

Lyngdoh Madam: I am not saying we need tochange it. I too find this definition very beauti-ful. But we don’t know if this is the best way ofdefining unless we think about it ourselves. Wemust not accept something just because it isfamous, just because everyone accepts it.

Yolanda: Ma’am, can I suggest something? Wedon’t need to look for any definition. I read some-where that the word democracy comes from aGreek word ‘Demokratia’. In Greek ‘demos’means people and ‘kratia’ means rule. So de-mocracy is rule by the people. This is the cor-rect meaning. Where is the need to debate?

Lyngdoh Madam: That is also a very helpful wayof thinking about this matter. I would just saythat this does not always work. A word does

not remain tied to its origin. Just think of comput-ers. Originally they were used for computing, thatis to say calculating, very difficult mathematicalsums. These were very powerful calculators. Butnowadays very few people use computers forcomputing sums. They use it for writing, for de-signing, for listening to music and for watchingfilms. Words remain the same but their meaningcan change with time. In that case it is not veryuseful to look at the origins of a word.

Merry: Ma’am, so basically what you are sayingis that there is no shortcut to our thinking aboutthe matter ourselves. We have to think aboutits meaning and evolve a definition.

Lyngdoh Madam: You got me right. Let us get onwith it now.

A C T I V I T Y

Let us take Lyngdoh Madam seriously and try towrite down the exact definition of some of thesimple words that we use all the time: pen, rainand love. For example, is there a way of defininga pen that distinguishes it clearly from a pencil, abrush, a chalk or crayon.What have you learnt from this attempt?What does it teach us about understanding the

meaning of democracy?

A simple defA simple defA simple defA simple defA simple definitioninitioninitioninitioninitionLet us get back to our discussionon similarities and differencesamong governments that are calleddemocracies. In the previous chapterwe identified one simple factorcommon to all democracies: thegovernment is chosen by the people.We could thus start with a simpledefinition: democracy is a form ofgovernment in which the rulersare elected by the people.

This is a useful starting point. Thisdefinition allows us to separatedemocracy from forms of governmentthat are clearly not democratic. Thearmy rulers of Myanmar are notelected by the people. Those whohappen to be in control of the army

I have heard adifferent version.Democracy is offoffoffoffoffthe people, farfarfarfarfar(from) the peopleand (where they)buybuybuybuybuy the people.Why don’t weaccept that?

25

CHECKYOUR

PROGRESS

become the rulers of the country.People have no say in this decision.Dictators like Pinochet are not electedby the people. This also applies tomonarchies. The kings of Nepal andSaudi Arabia rule not because thepeople have chosen them to do so butbecause they happen to be born intothe royal family.

This simple definition is notadequate. It reminds us thatdemocracy is people’s rule. But if weuse this definition in an unthinkingmanner, we would end up calling

almost every government that holds anelection a democracy. That would bevery misleading. As we shall find outin Chapter Four, every government incontemporary world wants to becalled a democracy, even if it is notso. That is why we need to carefullydistinguish between a governmentthat is a democracy and one thatpretends to be one. We can do so byunderstanding each word in thisdefinition carefully and spelling outthe features of a democraticgovernment.

Ribiang went back home and collected some more famous quotations on democracy. This time she didnot mention the names of the people who said or wrote these. She wants you to read these and commenton how good or useful these thoughts are: Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. Democracy consists of choosing your dictators after they’ve told you what you think it is you want

to hear.Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes

democracy necessary Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

WWWWWHAHAHAHAHATTTTT ISISISISIS D D D D DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY? W? W? W? W? WHYHYHYHYHY D D D D DEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYY?????

This cartoon wasdrawn when electionswere held in Iraq withthe presence of USand other foreign

powers. What do youthink this cartoon is

saying? Why is‘democracy’ written

the way it is?



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2.2 F2.2 F2.2 F2.2 F2.2 FEAEAEAEAEATURESTURESTURESTURESTURES OOOOOFFFFF DDDDDEMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCREMOCRACACACACACYYYYYwant in a democracy? Or must ademocratic government functionwith some limits? Is it necessaryfor a democracy to respect somerights of the citizens?Let us consider each of these

questions with the help of someexamples.

MMMMMajor deajor deajor deajor deajor decisions bcisions bcisions bcisions bcisions by eley eley eley eley elecccccttttteeeeedddddleadersleadersleadersleadersleadersIn Pakistan, General PervezMusharraf led a military coup inOctober 1999. He overthrew ademocratically elected governmentand declared himself the ‘ChiefExecutive’ of the country. Later hechanged his designation to Presidentand in 2002 held a referendum inthe country that granted him a five-year extension. Pakistani media,human rights organisations anddemocracy activists said that thereferendum was based on

We have started with a simpledefinition that democracy is a formof government in which the rulersare elected by the people. Thisraises many questions:Who are the rulers in this

definition? Which officials must beelected for any government to becalled a democracy? Whichdecisions may be taken by non-elected officials in a democracy?

What kind of election constitutesa democratic election? Whatconditions must be fulfilled for anelection to be considereddemocratic?

Who are the people who can electthe rulers or get elected as rulers?Should this include every citizen onan equal basis? Can a democracydeny some citizens this right?

Finally, what kind of a form ofgovernment is democracy? Canelected rulers do whatever they

Syria is a small westAsian country. Theruling Ba’ath Party

and some of its smallallies are the only

parties allowed in thatcountry. Do you think

this cartoon couldapply to China or

Mexico? What doesthe crown of leaves

on democracysignify?


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social science - chahal academy · 2018. 12. 29. · division, ncert ncert campus sri aurobindo...

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