Daily Times

This rapid liberalisation and the emergence of democracy as a cosmopolitan norm drastically reverberated the political orders of developing societies. The region MENAP (Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan) is the major recipient of the changing dynamics of global order. The brisk global change was mired in direct clash with the national institutions and the indigenous norms.

Democratisation became a key agenda and the fragility of the states with weak socio-political fabric guided the great crises of state and society in the postcolonial polities. The traditional legitimising factors also dwindled in the wake of the changed international matrix. The technological accesses and awareness at large in these societies as an offshoot to this modernity precipitated with unintended consequences. The phenomenon of the Arab Spring, which ended up as Arab Winter, had its deep links with the wave of democratisation that started after the 1990s. The thrust for liberal democracy thrived in the unrest and discontent and crystallised with further disorder and anarchy.

The triumph of the USA over USSR, which was the win of liberal capitalism over the communism, surged the drive for consumerism. It resulted in the dispensation of the social process of modernity in the developing societies. This modernity was the overt outcome of the capitalism as an economic system. The opening of markets and liberalised trade led to the opening of markets in many countries, and this system was marked with non-market coordination and led to the destabilising consequences for these countries.

The peacekeeping operations and a drive towards global governance further underscored the agenda of the major powers for the promotion of democracy. The emerging concepts of conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and conflict management came at the front burner and changed the landscape of the national and vernacular politics in the developing societies. The phenomenon of humanitarian interventions totally reinvented the theoretical postulations of sovereignty for the states in the pretext of international law. The western liberal democracies overrode the post-Cold War world order, so the impetus behind all these initiatives was to develop a cosmopolitan society with moral responsibilities.

The post-colonial societies are the major victims of this exploitative framework of capitalism where state appears as a discursive factor, and the masses are on the receiving end

The state building and the processes of democratisation were supported, purported and facilitated by the western democracies having provided social and infrastructural aids to these developing countries. It led to the more extreme environments in these states. The soft access to money in terms of aid and infrastructural programmes started modernising these polities. This modernisation was in patches and was not equal, therefore; it affected the frame of the rule in these states.

The confused progression of these states towards democracy has led to the hybridisation of the political processes in these societies where newly emerging norms are not only confronting the existing ones but are largely affecting and redefining them. These societies are attempting to operationalise democracies, but a bitter perception in this regard is the stark difference between democracy and democratisation. Democracy is merely a political system whereas democratisation needs not be linear in its character but a consolidated frame of the rule with functioning institutions where democratic practices are expected to be firmly established.

Democracy is inextricably linked with development where democracy is deeply connected with capitalism. The notion of western liberal democracy presumes that democracy and capitalism must go on hand inhand with one another, but the real point of inquiry is whether democracy can survive without capitalism or in another way if capitalism can survive without democracy? The interplay of capitalism and democracy is confounding in many ways. To understand this enigma, the nature of the relationship between democracy, capitalism, and modernity needs to be understood.

The capitalism in its crude logic presumes individuals motivated for self-interest. It does not account for human beings but primarily focuses on the interests of an individual. The logic of capitalism is capable enough to change the world and itself. Capitalism is a dynamic system which impulses the individuals and prompts them to move ahead with the motivation of individual interests without the interference of the state. But one simple definition of capitalism is almost impossible to be agreed on. It varies from culture to culture and state to state. There is a great variety of the capitalistic frame of rules across the globe. In broader discourse, capitalism denotes for economic activity, social institutions, and human relationships.

The post-colonial societies are the major victims of this exploitative framework of capitalism where state appears as a discursive factor, and the masses are on the receiving end. The markets in developing states are under the incessant pressure of international governmental organisations, nongovernmental organisations and other supranational competing actors that are driving forces of capitalism as well. Though historically democratic capitalism has always remained vibrant since the advent of the industrial revolution, yet it was vociferously confronted with the political left and the reactionary ideologies in the form of Marxism, Leninism, communism, and socialism.

Amidst all these mercurial developments democracy emerged as a single hegemonic discourse overriding the world. Right now in more specific terms, there is no competitor to democracy. There is no other system in post-Cold War era that confronts democracy and the drive for the free market economy is sweeping across the world and in particular, those countries who were either non-capitalistic or always remained under the authoritarian hold. Pakistan is a classic case study of the said undercurrents.

The writer is a Lecturer at School of Politics and International Relations of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and is the author of the book, Democracy in Pakistan: From Rhetoric to Reality

Published in Daily Times, May 27^th 2018.