Democracy is generally cited as the best form of governance. Curiously, China’s president Xi Jinping in his meeting with US president Joe Biden at the G20 Summit in Bali swore by democracy, explaining that the democracy the US practised was different from the ‘democracy’ that China practised. Democracy means ‘rule of the people by the people and for the people’ as America’s 16th President Abraham Lincoln had put it. The concept evolved from Greece and the term is a mix of ‘demos’ meaning people and ‘kratos’ power.
Xi’s stress was that freedom, democracy and human rights are humanity’s common pursuits and the Chinese Communist Party’s constant pursuit. “The US has American-style democracy while China has Chinese-style democracy.” A closer look at China would reveal that the Communist Party that runs the government selects or elects the head of state. The party leadership itself emerges from selections at the grassroots level. This is different from dictatorships in the Islamic nations in the Middle East or Africa – two geographical regions where dictators rule the roost. The Gulf states flushed with oil income are run in an orderly manner while there is no individual freedom. So is Singapore, the progressive island nation, where democracy is practised in a limited form. These are where governments take care of their people. As such, a lack of individual freedom is not emerging as a serious issue. This is unlike India, where elected governments can change every five years; meaning a short-term responsibility for those who govern the nation. New governments with new priorities come and overturn the initiatives of the past. Growth suffers. This does not happen in Singapore, China or the Gulf States, or even in dictatorships as in Africa or West Asia. In several democracies, loot by the leaders and the bureaucracy is massive. This is only one of democracy’s many problems.
In India, democracy has been in a state of slow evolution since 1947 after the end of the British Rule and rule by princely states. The large mass of the electorate votes by instinct and not by exercise of their brain power. People famously “voted with their feet” and re-elected governments or leaders who deceptively spoke up for the poor and at the same time looted the exchequer. Yet, when corruption was perceived to be high, we the people voted out the UPA-II. With television sets up at most homes, the level of awareness of the people is growing – a good sign for democracy. China grew by leaps and bounds by adopting a different type of governance system. It has its merits too. Freedom in itself means very little.
