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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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2 POWER AND POLITICS I VOTE, THEREFORE I AMbe the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressedin periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal andequal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent freevoting procedures.’More than any other political system, democracy has a trackrecord of promoting and protecting individual political rights andcivil liberties, such as freedom of speech and association, and thesein turn help <strong>to</strong> entrench democratic values and foster democraticpolitics, paving the way for the enjoyment of economic, social, andcultural rights. Democracy is not necessarily benign: emerging democraciesin the USA, Argentina, and Australia committed somethingclose <strong>to</strong> genocide against indigenous groups.Without a wider range ofstate institutions being in place (see Part 4), elections (which canseriously challenge existing power structures) can trigger violence, asin recent attempts at democratic transitions in Lebanon, Afghanistan,Kenya, and the Palestinian Authority, while elections in Algeria,Burundi, and Yugoslavia in the 1990s led directly <strong>to</strong> major civil wars. 104More than periodic elections, democracy is best unders<strong>to</strong>od as acluster of devices and institutions, some of which point in contradic<strong>to</strong>rydirections, and all of which are continuing <strong>to</strong> evolve. It is thechecks and balances that these different institutions –legislature,judiciary, executive, media, and civil society – exert on each other thatdetermine the degree <strong>to</strong> which democratic regimes respect the rightsof all their citizens. 105 When competitive elections are introduced in asituation of weak or non-existent institutions, as in the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo, it can trigger an outbreak of ‘spoils politics’and political meltdown, undermining efforts <strong>to</strong> build the state.Democracy is made possible by greater equality, and in turnpromotes equality and seems <strong>to</strong> encourage governments <strong>to</strong> focus onthe prosaic needs of their citizens, rather than on glory or plunder.Studies find a clear link between democracy and the greater provisionof primary education. Once income effects are excluded, democraciesspend 25–50 per cent more than au<strong>to</strong>cracies on public goods andservices. 106 Democracy also has an equalising effect on power relationsbetween men and women. Conversely, where democracies fail <strong>to</strong>address inequalities, civic involvement and voter turnout fall. 10781

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