Summer in Washington, DC has retired to the confines of our memories, and though the air is still warm and comfortable, the fading evening light reminds us that autumn has claimed its place on this year’s stage. As the wind rustles thirsty leaves sucking down their last sips of green, the American landscape is dotted with the reds and blues of another kind of season – campaign time – when political yard signs celebrate that most hallowed of democratic occasions. What is more fundamental to democracy than participation in the political process, when citizens gather together to rally around those whom they wish to represent them in a government for the people, by the people?
As I stood among the red brick buildings of an old colonial town, where fading sunlight streamed from the heavens and illuminated the myriad of stars and stripes hanging from buildings and lampposts, I contemplated the democratic process and the empowerment of someone like me, a common citizen. I soon found myself engaged in conversation about it with a middle-aged man donning the candidate’s name on his shirt and a round sticker on his chest to match. This is the essence of being, I thought, to be in control of one’s own destiny, to have a voice in policymaking. Attention eventually turned to the merits of democracy promotion over the course of our discussion, especially the successes and failures of it in the Middle East, and I brought up the subject of economic reform.
“Economic reform?” he repeated as he looked at me like I had said the sky was green. “What does economic reform have to do with democracy?” Now, I have been at CIPE for nearly three years, enough time to have learned a thing or two about the relationship between political and economic reform, but it always surprises me when someone does not understand the link.
“The two have to happen simultaneously if true reform is to take root,” I began. “He who controls the purse strings controls everything, right? If elected leaders take office and it’s economics as usual, nothing is going to change. Who cares if a country goes to vote if the officials ignore the people once in office?”
“But people have to be able to vote to elect leaders to make economic policy that benefits them.”
“You know as well as I do that those who run for office in what are termed ‘emerging democracies’ are all too often elites who are only in it for themselves. It all comes down to corruption. The Middle East is plagued by it – it’s their number one problem, in my opinion. Forget fundamentalism or poverty – those are mere symptoms of the disease. See, the relationship between those who control the economy – business leaders – and those who control the state – policymakers – is so incestuous that you often can’t find any line separating the public sector from the private sector. And in many countries, especially in the Gulf, state-owned enterprises dominate economies, so there really is no line at all.”
“So what does that have to do with democracy?”
“It’s all about governance. The adoption of good governance practices leads to transparency and accountability, culminating in the separation of the state and leading business interests. Without this separation, genuine democratic governance cannot occur, as the corporatist nature of countries’ political and economic systems effectively bar market reform. Government involvement just causes distortions in the market system. You have to make business leaders understand that they are only hurting themselves by not modernizing their governance practices, that people don’t want to invest in countries where corruption reigns supreme. By reforming the economic sector of a country, you can also reform the political sector.”
“Well, that’s interesting. I never thought of it that way. It’s like it makes the government more transparent, too. We should tell our candidate to talk more about it when he’s talking about democracy. Why isn’t there more emphasis on economic reform in development?”
“That’s a whole other issue. You want to grab a pint and I’ll try to explain it to you?”
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