POL112H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Barack Obama, Sexual Slavery, Autocracy
7 Jul 2016
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Theories on why democracy exists: modernization theory. Powerful correlation between democracy and economic development gdp richer the country the more likely they are to have democracy. Advocates say there is not only correlation but causation they would expect if a poor country would become rich you would expect non democracies to become democratic. Critics would argue they do not buy idea of causation. Supported the pessimistic view that democracy would not spread the only time you will see democracy spread is in rich countries. However some of the poor countries in the world have democracy i. e. africa: culturally-based pessimism theories. Democracy spread in the west due to judeo-christian and enlightenment cultural traditions: emphasis on individualism, less of emphasis on community. Non-western cultures (asian, islamic, etc. ) were incompatible with democracy because of emphasis on order over freedom, consensus over competition, and the community over the individual. Many non western countries that have democracies muslim countries, asian countries.
