Originally Posted by kashifmenzor

Schism of democracy and economic take off

Published in The Frontier Post on September 6, 2012


Kashif Manzoor

Correlation between democracy and economic take off has been awarded a status of universal value by the Western political thought.
It has been assumed to a mythical level that economic take off cannot be launched without the prevalence of democratic institutions. This sense of inescapability culminated in the Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History and the Last Man” in which he argued about the ultimate victory of political and economic liberalism.
If we can go through the history from British industrial revolution-the first of its kind- to the modern economic success stories, the universality of the above said correlation requires a rethink. Martin Jacques in his classic “When China Rules the World: The End of Western World and the Birth of a new Global Order” has given an entirely different proposition when he goes through the details of all the major economic take offs right from British to the modern age. British industrial revolution took off in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries but only one-fifth of the men had the right to vote even by 1850 and women got the right to vote only in 1918. Generally this scenario applies to other European nation-states as monarchies were pervasive in the Europe during the economic take offs.
American story is no different either as only White men enjoyed the right to vote during the American economic take off depriving the Blacks and the Women. Japan, the only non-western nation to be industrialized, only introduced the male suffrage in 1925 whilst the economic take had been achieved as a consequence of the Meiji Restoration which occurred in 1868.
Martin Jacques then gives the accounts of relatively modern economic take offs achieved by the Asian countries. South Korea and Taiwan had the military dictatorships at the helm of affairs when the respective economies took off and Singapore was governed by a regime what could be called as an authoritarian or even a contrived democracy. Under the British rule, Hong Kong was devoid of democracy yet it was an economic miracle cherished by other East Asian countries. Perhaps the biggest blow to the myth of correlation between democracy and economic take off is China’s ascendency to the status of biggest economy of the world only after the US. Chinese governance system can be called anything but the democracy yet they were able to achieve economic success that the Francis Fukuyama had to acknowledge the fact that US democracy has little to teach China.
But there has to be some sort of method through which economic take off can be achieved. If the democracy is an illusion, what is the reality then? An economic take off requires political stability, consistency of policies and rigorous implementation. It needs a visionary leadership that does not compromise the long term goals and avoids the costly popular decisions just to gain political mileage. It needs an environment where sanity prevails and vested interests may not turn the national interests into wasted interest.
Some people will argue that India is a democracy and she’s got the economic success with the democratic institutions. But after having a bird’s eye view of Dr. Manmohan Singh’s role in the economic progress of India, the truth may be revealed. Dr. Manmohan Singh has been playing a key role in the Indian economic revival since 1991 when he was appointed as Indian finance minister by the Narasimha Rao’s government.
His economic reforms gave him the name of “Indian Deng Xiaoping” which is a notable thing in itself. His ascendency into the office of prime minister in 2004 gave him the opportunity to embed the prerequisites of an economic take off into Indian economy. It was the consistency of Dr. Manmohan Singh that produced the results and not the volatility of Indian politics.
What the proponents of democracy have done is that they have made the democracy an end in itself whilst it should be a mean to an end: the prosperity of the nation. If a system has been proven dysfunctional, why not try another one? We as a nation need to think out of box. It’s not a divine revelation that cannot be defied in any case. We need a system which can provide us with visionary leadership that in turn can deliver prerequisites of an economic take off stated above.

Note: sir I can understand the connotations of the topic....

Originally Posted by Pearl013

sir which book u have mentioned for geography GOH book am unable to get its name fully???

Originally Posted by Javeriya

AOA!

I have taken up Geography as one of the optional subject kindly recommend to me some good books on this subject, moreover I also want to look for books on MCQ's for the Geography subject and EDS . . . Please I need all the help that I can get!!

Regards,
Javeriya

Originally Posted by Mr Mediocre

Sir .. plz guide me .. which books i may get for these subjects.
EDS,Islamiat compulsory & pak-affairs ..
I want to do islamiat in english medium.. suggest me book..plz



Your cooperation will highly be appreciated ..

Originally Posted by shah24

Assalam-o-alikum
sir
first of all thanks for such a valuable information from you.
after that I want to join anyone good in islamabad region,as i can't come to lahore due some problems. therefore, if you know any good teacher in islamabad then please share with me, and also your suggestion about geography that should I go for geo instead of U.S and journalism in such short period of time as I have already studied US and journalism.

Originally Posted by Maan Ch

Assalam-o-alaikum sir,

Kindly advise me over my selectives please

Geography
Psychology
Mercantile Law
Punjabi

Moreover sir, i wanted to ask if one can adopt a selective approach in geography ( both papers ), if yes, than to what an extent..kindly explain with reference to the topics of both papers..

Anxiously waiting for your response Sir,
Maan.

Originally Posted by sajidmehmood

AOA... dear brother please help me out...
1) how should i prepare for Pak.Affairs? kindly recommend me the books for the different eras. and what should i do for the contemporary issues related to P.A?
2) and also tell me how to prepare Current Affairs?
3) i am opting islamyat in urdu. so guide me with it too..
i will be really grateful.
thanks and God bless..

Originally Posted by sajidmehmood

hakuna matata.. but can you plz recommend books for islamyat? plz plz plz... i am currently studying a book by Liaqat ali (i think)... and thanks for all your help.. God bless you...