Political freedom and human development

In Bangladesh, democratic deficits are growing alongside its uninterrupted course, other than during the emergency rule in its electoral democracy. If human development is about expanding people's choices to lead the lives they value, then democratic rights should surely be an integral part of this concept of development. Democracy then is an end, to be valued for itself. But because, in theory, democracy gives the citizen a voice to demand, for example, good education, health services and an enabling environment for higher incomes; it is also an instrument for expanding human development. To take the subject first, we are the best example there can be of a democracy failing to provide a measure of decent level of well-being to a majority of the citizenry. While we can take justifiable pride in the deep roots that electoral democracy has taken at home, we also see dictatorships and semi-dictatorships have raced ahead in ensuring a higher level of human development, when measured in terms of income, education and health. This leads at times to an ill-informed expression of disgust towards democracy and an ill-informed corresponding preference for some form of dictatorship. The weaknesses in the instrumental connection between political freedoms and human development have to do with the democratic deficits, as the Human Development Report calls them. These deficits are of many kinds. One, there is the lack of accountability in democratic institutions. Legislators are held accountable only at election time. Two, the checks and balances between the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary are often sufficiently weakened to prevent the exercise of accountability. Three, corruption, money power and criminalization together can subvert democratic institutions. Four, discrimination which is institutionalized by society - in gender, community and socio-economic status - means that participation in democratic processes can often be only of symbolic value. Five, centralization of executive powers in a democracy reduces even further the strength of people's voices, especially when these come to the delivery of social services. These are the more obvious problems with the practice of democracy today. The situation varies from country to country. Where electoral democracy has been the practice for a longer period are not necessarily the countries where the imperfections are less common. There is no gainsaying that democratic governance is far better than authoritarian regimes. Addressing the democratic deficits and strengthening institutions are critical for building a virtuous cycle between governance and human development. Otherwise, the excellently conceived `visions for change ' for the future will be nothing more than pipe dreams. All human beings are also dream-beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together. All humans dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous humans, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit our dreams. We should never agree to surrender our dreams. People are so busy dreaming the Bangladeshi dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they are all asleep at the switch. Consequently, we are living in the Age of Human Error. So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable. One thing that distresses us greatly is that there is a good number of people in India who have not profited by development planning and whose poverty is abysmal and most painful. We do think that some method should be found to remedy the situation. We all dream; we do not understand our dreams, yet we act as if nothing strange goes on in our sleep minds -- strange at least by comparison with the logical, purposeful doings of our minds when we are awake. A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labour the bread it has earned -- this is the sum of good governance. A wise and frugal government, which shall retrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labour the bread it has earned. All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate the same would be oppression. Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government. The writer can be reached at e-mail: gopalsengupta@aol.com