Does democracy help or hinder development Essay

Does democracy help or hinder development - Essay Example Does democracy, used in this context to mean free and fair elections with a peaceful transfer of political authority, allow countries to develop? These questions and many more will be addressed with reference to our analysis of the linkages between democracy and political stability. An analysis of the political and economic situations of Somalia and Iraq, our case studies, will explore the relationship between poverty and political instability and demonstrate whether the absence of democracy and hence political stability, breeds poverty and economic stagnation. Poverty, it seems is a universal feature of the global community. What are the global ramifications of extreme poverty? Fundamentally, does democracy help or hinder development? What is poverty and how can it be defined? The term poverty refers a deprivation of some sort that affects one’s quality of life. Poverty is often described in monetary terms and varies from country to country. Poverty thus is environmentally specific as the idea of poverty will differ in North America and Africa. Many developed countries use a low-income cut-off to gage poverty in their respective societies and a so-called poverty line can be useful for understanding poverty. While very difficult to measure globally, the United Nations frequently uses the analogy of a dollar a day to refer to someone who is poor (for more information on the challenges associated with poverty measurement, see Amartya Sen’s Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement). How does one define political stability? Theoretically speaking, the term is notoriously difficult to define and definitions will necessarily vary (see Fosu 329-348). Nonetheless, it is integral that the concept of political stability be defined for the theoretical purpose of this essay. Political stability in much of the world is defined as the establishment of democracy and democratic rules of governance. By