Question

Q Globalization and Democracy. O unread of o messages Does globalization result in the promotion of democracy? If so, is this always a good thing? Explain. After posting your initial thoughts, respond to at least 2-3 of your classmates' posts.

Answer 1

Perhaps the most tangible evidence of the effect of globalization on democratization has been the introduction into many international and local structures of democratic norms and the values of human rights that underpin them. National boundaries are increasingly unfettering the idea of responsibility for human rights abuse, as demonstrated by the detention of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998. The ad hoc tribunal for war crimes of the United Nations, which was convened in the early 1990s for the former Yugoslavia, was expanded to Rwanda in the mid-1990s, anticipating a wider step towards international justice.

Where a quorum of democracies already exists or where the largest and most economically powerful states are democratic, regional groups follow codes of democratic practice. In such situations, the weight of the democratic majority (and club membership benefits) is sometimes enough to help persuade non-democratic states to liberalize. But the pattern stops abruptly where there is an equal number of democratic or non-democratic states in the political spectrum or where authoritarian regimes predominate. In Asia, for instance, the heterogeneity of political regimes in Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has largely kept democracy and human rights off the table

The rise of transnational non-governmental organizations dedicated to promoting democracy and protecting human rights has been a more positive but more low-level phenomenon. These organizations, which typically originate and are headquartered in Western nations, create beachheads in authoritarian nations (and cultivate local counterparts), although they are rarely able to operate there without substantial restrictions.

When economic ties between states grow, authoritarian countries are facing increased pressure from transnational corporations to liberalize politically. As a result of globalization, these authoritarian states have less reason to cling to power or to implement their radical policies. Globalization encourages authoritarian states to decentralize power by handing over control to advance the fundamentally democratic market.