Fareed Zakaria’s article addresses the complexity of democracy and liberalism in the world. The article discussed the issues that tend to limit democracy as the best mode of governance due to the issues that most democracies tend to hinder, for instance, freedom of speech, civil rights, property rights, and other human rights that are claimed to be dominant among democratic countries. Zakaria begins by quoting Richard Holbrooke’s statement following the 1966 elections in Bosnia that claimed, “Suppose the election was declared free and fair … And those elected are racists, fascists, separatists, who publicly opposed to peace and reintegration.” (Zakaria, 1997). The statement indicates that free and fair elections, which are the cornerstone of any election, do not guarantee liberal democracy as was once thought before Zakaria’s great illustration.
The article demonstrates the complexity involved in having the wrong leaders or regulations in a democratic country does not facilitate freedom among the people. The report provides the differences between democracy and liberalism although their rise has been mistaken for long, it is clear that they are different. By using Schmitter’s definition of liberalism as either political or economic freedom or rights that people must enjoy without government interference, whereas democracy is termed as decision-making process where the majority wins which is demonstrated in most democratic free and fair elections all over the world. He argues that with more leaders being famous in their countries, for instance, Palestine, Peru, Pakistan, Iran, and Slovakia have in the past or currently have presidents or governments that were won their elections and are still loved by the people they violate most of the human rights (Zakaria, 1997). The killing of drug dealers passed by the current Philippines’ president is one of the most recent illustrations of the arguments discussed by Zakaria and terms such a human right violating democracy as an illiberal democracy.
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Zakaria argues that illiberal democracy has been on the rise due to the various understanding of human rights among the citizens or the need for the leaders to suppress the public by limiting freedom of speech, for example, Ethiopia’s rule that suppresses journalism is similar to most Islamic countries. The rules such as Islamic laws used in Islamic nations inhibit women and different civil rights such as property ownership (Zakaria, 1997). The author aims at enlightening the world on the need to boost liberalism rather than assuming that democratic nations are liberal. The article is relevant as it discusses applicable situations that may have escaped citizens of such countries that are practicing illiberal democracies and calls for the elite nations push for liberalism by disconnecting with countries that promote illiberal democracies.
Dictatorship dominated most of the world in the 19th and the early 20th century, but with the efforts employed by the elite nations, democracy is the most used way of governance in the world. The author argues that the influence of western and European countries enabled the need for democracy among developing nations but the failure to ensure the liberalism have led to the increased illiberal democracies. Globalization being at its highest due to technology, it is easier for the elite countries to determine the illiberal democracies and limit their relationship, for instance, sanctions and other benefits gained from their relationships would ensure that such governments become liberal in time.
The United Nations should aid in identifying illiberal democracies and set the rules that will ensure liberal democracies, but with the growth of powerful nations such as Russia practicing illiberal democracies in Putin’s case, and no retribution, more countries will fall victim of the vice, as predicted by Zakaria (Illing, 2017). The topic of illiberal democracy and foreign affairs is still young with most scholars ignoring it, but Zakaria has offered the background for future studies that will provide the best approach to mitigate and eliminate the vice of illiberal democracy in the world.
References
Illing, S. (2017, June 4). Fareed Zakaria made a scary prediction about democracy in 1997 — and it's coming true. Vox . Retrieved September 17, 2017, from https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/1/18/14250364/democracy-liberalism-donald-trump-populism-fareed-zakaria-europe-fascism
Zakaria, F., (1997, December). The Rise of Illiberal Democracy. Foreign Affairs, vol.76, pp.22-43. Council on Foreign Relations . Retrieved September 18, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20048274
