Rise of Democracy | Cultural Perspective |

“Culture is a share, learned, and symbolic system of values, ideas, beliefs and practices that shapes and influences our perceptions and behavior”. We can draw the following things from this definition of culture:

1. Culture is shared by members of society. There is no culture of one.

2. The process of learning one’s culture is known as “enculturation”

3. Culture is unavoidable subjective.

4. Culture exists inside our collective minds.

5. Culture is what we collectively think or want it to be.

6. Culture must be learned and constantly reproduced.

7. When culture Is reproduced, there occur significant variations.

The significance of culture includes “Culture has the power”. Culture can shape and influence the behavior of individuals at both individual and collective levels. We can best explain the phenomenon of terrorism and genocide from the perspectives of culture.

Structuralists believe that unless a transformation was achieved in the Church’s centuries-old opposition to the sovereign state, which was something separate from that of the Church’s authority. The prospect of democracy in the Catholic countries was very dim. When the transformation was achieved the Church became the key agent in the democratic transformation. The church could use its moral authority to influence the others and its institutional authority to shape the behavior of others. The “catholic wave” was a period between 1974-90. During this period some 30 Catholic countries became democratic.

The Vatican 2 council also played an important role in the transformation of democracy. John Paul (1978-2005) is also important in this regard.

“Democracy is all about the quality of the substance of political, social and economic life”. This is a substantive or qualitative definition of democracy. This quality includes human welfare, individual and social freedom, security, equality, social and economic equality, public deliberation, and peaceful conflict resolution.

Another definition which is known as “procedural definition” includes four points. This includes,

i. The multiparty system with political parties competing with each other.

ii. Free and non-corrupt voting procedure.

iii. Universal and equal suffrage.

These are some minimum or core requirements of democracy.

There is also a practical or operational definition of democracy. This includes:

i. Freedom to form or join an organization

ii. Freedom of expression

iii. The right to vote

iv. Eligibility of public office

v. Right of political leaders to compete for support and votes

vi. Alternative source of information

vii. Free and fair election

viii. Institutions for making government policies depend on votes.

To watch more videos you can click on the following links:

Why poor countries are poor | Rational Choice Perspective |

Why poor countries are poor | Cultural Perspective |

Why poor countries are poor | Structural Perspective |

What is Poverty

Treaty of Westphalia

Realism in International Relations

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