Democracy sustenance in a poverty ridden society” Akwa Ibom State
CHAPTER ONE
It is unarguably that democracy is the best form of government for any nation. And democracy is not a potted plant which can be transported into any soil and without work or effort. As aptly summed up by Larry Diamond (1992); it is one thing to get democracy. It is another thing, often more difficult, to sustain it, to consolidate it, to breathe real life and meaning into it, to make it endure.
In the ancient time, democracy was practiced in its direct form in Athens one of the Greek City-State. According to Simyu V. G. 1988: 49, democracy consisted not only rule according to the wishes of the majority of the people, but actual participation of the people themselves. All free adult males were allowed to participate directly in the decision-making process of the entire government.
Democracy in modern times, according to 16th American President, Abraham Lincoln (1861-65), is the government of people, by the people and for the people. Raphael, 1971 define democracy as system of rule in which the entire people or citizenry are assumed to have the right and opportunity to participate, either directly or indirectly, in governance through representative elected by them and these elected representative are in turn, accountable to the electorate. Akpakpan and Umoh (1999) describe democracy as a political system with a high level of civil and political liberty.
It is system which gives room for competition among political parties and association for power. Democracy allows for mass participation by adult in the selection of leaders and representatives by means of fair and free electoral process. Democracy according to Carl Cohen (1971:7) is that system of community government in which by and large the members of the community participate or may participate directly in the making of decision which affects them all. This definition emphasizes the nation of equality and direct participation. In this direction Philips Shively (1991:322) defines democracy as a state in which all fully qualified citizen vote at regular intervals to choose, among alternative candidate, the people who will be in charge of setting state’s policies. John Locke, the progenitor of modern and liberal democracy defines it as a rule by the majority. A government arising from the majority of men uniting into whole power of the community and employing all power in making law by officer of their own appointing (second Treatise, Ch Xii 32)
From Marxist point of view, as represented in the work of Marx and Engels. The communist manifesto, democracy corrects “the dictatorship of the common people, the plebeians. It was very much a class affair; it meant the sway of the lowest and largest class. That is why it was feared, rejected and modified by men of the age of enlightenment spearheaded by the British who valued their property more than the issue of political sentiments.
Democracy is considered superior to all other system of government because it guarantees and protects the right and interest of all individual and groups, it ensures majority rule and grants the minority the right of dissent. There are three element that make democracy acceptable and attractive and these are participation, representative and accountability, whether it is direct or indirect rule through representatives, democracy has attracted a lot of people and is widely desired and accepted as the closest approximation to the good society in operation and the best form of government, the world over, from European to America, Africa to Asia, Latin America to Russia.
In Nigeria, poverty has been deep routed and makes people loose confident in the government policies ineffective, weaken the basis for it growth and maturity. It renders citizen fragile and vulnerable to external influence which may be the way of inducement to subvert the government. Poverty is capable of breeding disillusionment with respect to what societal objectives are and the responsibilities of the citizen forward the attainment of such objectives. In the face of disillusionment and ignorance democratic experimentation are bound to collapse due to lack of mass participation in government and breakdown of essential principles of democracy.
In this work, attention will first of focused on those element that hindered the sustainability of democracy in the society with particular reference to Akwa Ibom State. It will also follow by a critical analysis and examination of this element on democratic sustenance in the society and it possible solution.
- STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
For democracy to be sustained in Nigeria there is a need to encourage a strong civil societies, mass media and freedom from ignorance and want, right of choice, respect for rule of law, periodic and orderly succession through secret ballot and high level of political participation and political education by political parties.
Since the inception of democracy in Nigeria, there have been a concerted effort by different administration and others non-governmental organization to achieve the aims of democracy but such effort kept meeting some hindrances, and these problems include, lack of mass participation in electoral process, lack of internal democracy among different political parties, economic inequality, pre and post election violent, politics of ethnicity and tribalism (sectional politics), selling of votes by the electorate, electoral corruption in the part of election officials, politics of God fatherism, lack of political education in the part of political parties and civil societies, bias report by the press and so on, all these elements are anti-democratic in nature and constitutes electoral corruption and their end-product is poverty which is a threat to democracy sustainability.
- Why do competitive political party necessary for democracy sustainability in the society?
- How can mass political participation be encouraged for our democracy to sustain?
- What actually constitute anti-democratic element in our society?
The objectives of the study are as follows;
To evaluate the effect of anti-democratic elements on democracy sustenance
To examines both economic and political ideology of our leaders and their impact on democracy sustainability.
To compare the level of democratic experiment in Akwa Ibom State as a case study with any other state in Nigeria.
To find out democratic institution necessary for the sustainability of democracy in our society
To proffers a possible solution to the negative effect of anti-democratic elements in our society for democracy to be sustained.
Ho,
There is no significant relationship between democracy sustenance and poverty.
Hi,
There is significant relationship between democracy sustenance and poverty.
The major focus of this study is to evaluate the negative effect of antidemocratic elements on democracy sustenance, examine the economic and political ideology of our leaders, find out institution necessary to sustain democracy and also suggest possible solution for democracy to be sustained in our society.
Attention will be given to the level of democratic experiment in Akwa Ibom as compare to other state in Nigeria.
In view of accepting democracy as the best form of government for any Nation, this work is significant in a number of ways. The work will help broaden the theoretical and practical understanding of democracy sustainability. That democracy has attracted a lot of people and is widely desired and accepted as the closest approximation to the good society in operation and best form of government, the world over.
The work will modify old ideas and contribute new ideas as well as fill the Lacuna in the stock of existing knowledge.
This work will also avail the public (readers) the opportunity to be acquainted with those conditions necessary and essential element that help democracy to be sustained in our society. The work will be a reference document in future.
Democracy: is a system of government in which citizen participate massively in their own government.
Sustenance: the act of providing a means of subsistence
Society: is a formal association of people with similar interest.
Poverty: is a situation whereby incomes and consumption are low.
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
It is generally believed among scholars that democratic ideas and practice originated from Greece. This is often supported by the fact that the concept “democracy” derives its name from two Greek words “Demos” meaning people and Kratia, meaning rule or power, which translates to “the rule of (by) the people”. In the Greek polis (city-state), everybody or citizen was a zoon politikon, a socio-political animal. Private and public life were not distinct. Consequently, government was a direct rule by the people in direct democracy. Government was guided by the constitution, the politeia, which according to Aristotle “is an instrument for the arrangement of power in the state, especially the supreme power which makes the government”. In the Greek society, democracy was a good government because the body of the people possessed the supreme power and liberty and all were free to rule and to be ruled in turn. In this democracy, there was generally affection for human race, love for one’s Country and the preference of the Country’s interest or the interest of all to one’s self interest. In short civic obedience, patriotism and Altruism were all present in the Greek democracy.
The absence of the polis, the city state, contributed greatly to the development of modern democracy. Now the city is bigger than the Greek State. Consequently, the idea of democracy is grossly disfigured. Democracy in modern time can be referred to as what the 16th American President; Abraham Lincoln (1861-65) thought it to be “the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Raphael, (1971). In this sense, democracy refers to a system of rule in which the entire people or citizenry are assumed to have the right and opportunity to participate either directly or indirectly in governance through representatives elected by the them these elected representative are in turn accountable to the peoples.
It thus appears that the modem conception of democracy is synonymous with majority. The popular conception of modern democratic practice is not without its problem since majority does not imply absolute totality of the entire citizenry. Hence, in every majority there must be a majority, a situation which has made some scholars to describe majority rules as the tyranny of the majority or the oppression of minorities. In order to avoid the “persecution, scholar, mostly these liberal tradition have throughout ages been pre-occupied with how to make democratic governments more responsible and accountable to the people, the majority-minority democracy notwithstanding. To this end several measures, among which are: provision and guarantee of fundamental liberties and human rights division of powers among branches and levels of government, constitutionalism toward ensuring this goal.
Democracy is a political ideology and by ideology according to French Philosopher, Antoine Desult de Tracy (1975) refers to ideology as a Science of ideas aimed at classifying and improving the public mind about socio-economic and political life. Christenson (1975), defined ideology as a belief system that explains and justifies a preferred and offers strategy/processes, institutional arrangement. The social democratic ideology is a set of ideas produced by philosophers like John Locke, Montesquieu, J.S mill and others. Marxist-Ideology is set of ideas produced by Karl Maxx that Ideology is the ideas of the ruling class use to rationalize and justify the capitalist system and its privileged position it. The only different between the two is that ideas are simplified in form so as to arouse to the emotions of the masses about their socio-economic and political problems. Political ideology aims at changing the existing political and social order.
Social democracy, also called welfare capitalist free-enterprise economy which has been considerably to incorporate egalitarian principles such as equality of opportunity, social security and mass political participation, (Alapiki 2010: 222). There are some basic elements in social democracy and one of these elements is the principle of parliamentary democracy. Social democrats believe that it is more prudent to gain power through democratic means and then their subject the existing capitalist system to progressive reforms, rather than to disrupt the element is the principle of free enterprise which encourages private initiative and achievement. However, the state is expected to lay down the basic parameters within the economy is allowed to operate. Examples are maintaining of law and order, health services, social security, employment. Welfare capitalism promotes the principle of equality of opportunity. Social democrats are moderately committed to equalitarian principle because they are useful not progressively-taxation and duties are introduced to level out steep discrepancies in income and wealth. In social democracy, the means of prosecution remains in private hands but the state has to guard against undue concentration of economic power. The state may take over them industries to promote the economy and provide essential infrastructure services like industries to promote the services like energy, transport, and communication services.
The foregoing has shown how welfare capitalism has sought to combine the positive features of both classical capitalism and socialism. The emergence of monopolies constitutes a threat of free concentration in market economics. The concentration of capital in multinational firm means that they can evade guidelines or restrictions impose by national government. In these circumstances, economic discipline is hand to enforce and thereby causing poverty in the society. Social democracies have not been able to come to terms with disruptive effect of technological innovation. On a national scale it may be able to re-channel redundant labour into sector, not yield affected by automation and capitalization. Hence, producer in developing country like Nigeria are thrown out of the market through greater competiveness of industrial products from the west. In other word unemployment has come to stay.
Democratic socialism according to Alapiki (2010 🙂 222) is a Marxist state controlled economy, which has been modifies considerably towards entrepreneurial initiative and free market. The essential feature of democratic socialist system is emergence of one-party states. However, the ideal is participatory democracy, which means that those who are affected by public decision should be part of decision-making process, at some point at least. Evidently, there is less repression and more freedom of expression, initiative and movement. Another principle of democratic socialism is that of worker self management. This principle is implies that by participatory democracy, it says that the employee of an enterprise have to do the actual running of firms and enterprises in the economy. There is also the principle of state owner-ship. The socialist as of the view that capital is an asset and could be owned by the state. Finally, socialist distribution is a cardinal principle of democratic socialism. Firm have to make profit from this certain deduction are made for national interest and the welfare of the community in which the firm operates. The remaining supplies are
