PO102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Economist Intelligence Unit, Arab Spring, Extremism
Document Summary
The arab peoples have come up with their own answer to violent extremism and the abusive regimes we"ve been propping up, its called democracy : the arab spring is the triumph of democracy. Led by dictators and pushed autocrats like china"s censorship laws. Realistically democracy is going to reverse: democratic meltdowns have become increasingly common. Democracy"s forward march peaked in the early 2000s: overall quality of democracy has deteriorated throughout the developing world. 2011 survey by the economist intelligence unit 48 out of 167 countries saw democracy deteriorated: dominant pattern globally, has been backsliding the past 5 years. Highly defective democracies: lack opportunity for opposition voices, rules o flaw problems and unprecedented political structures that are a little better than autocracies. Middle classes have come to disdain norms of democratic culture such as using elections, non-violent street protests, to change leaders this trend is only getting stronger. New global middle is choosing stability over anything else.
