12 Conclusion: Democracy and Development
The main challenge facing Third World societies today is the creation of a
political system with legitimacy in the eyes of the majority. Without legiti-
macy in government there can be no stability, and without stability, no
social and economic progress. Legitimacy is increasingly seen to reside
with democratic forms of government as pro-democracy movements gather
momentum in most regions of the Third World. Yet the most pronounced
feature of democratic regimes is their fragility. The establishment of peace-
ful, democratic politics is obstructed by civil war in Afghanistan, Burundi
and Sudan, political assassination in Mexico, ethnic conflict and separatism
in Rwanda, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Liberia, religious fundamentalism in
Egypt and Algeria, bankrupt absolutism in Zaire and El Salvador, and the
West’s willingness to sell arms to any regime, no matter how repressive. The
threat of economic crisis hangs over the fledgling democracies of Brazil,
Malawi, Nepal, Uganda, Angola and Mozambique. Communal violence
persistently mars India’s democratic record. Many Third World countries
are faced with accumulations of such factors, and some combine them with
severe ecological problems.
Although there have been impressive transitions away from military
dictatorship in many parts of the Third World in the last decade, the military
as a political force is present everywhere, growing stronger, and should
never be underestimated politically. It remains dominant in parts of Asia,
the Middle East and Africa. The armed forces pose an overt threat to democ-
racy in the Philippines, Haiti, Guatemala, Thailand, Uruguay, Chad,
Venezuela and Cambodia, Nigeria, Mali, Peru, Sierra Leone and Gambia.
Foreign intervention has often been a Third World democracy’s only pro-
tection against the militarization of politics.
Much of the hope for stability in the new pluralist political systems rests
on the organizational strength of political parties whose ideologies support
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