Understanding Third World Politics

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ways that reach the poor, and strengthening the Rule of Law to remove the
illegalities which the poor encounter when they seek to exert political influ-
ence or enforce their rights: arbitrary arrest, police harassment, violence
from thugs hired by economic élites, and bureaucratic discrimination.
Empowerment can also be extended by supporting, through enabling rules
if not financial subventions, legal service organizations to improve legal
literacy, provide legal aid, create a culture of rights, organize legal advocacy
and campaign for legal reforms. Such changes not only assist the poor in
securing their legal rights and entitlements but also empower the poor polit-
ically (World Bank, 2001c, pp. 105–10).
New democracies are also threatened by the possibility of a ‘revolution’
of rising expectations, as in countries where sharp increases in the prices
of basic commodities have led to riots, in South Africa, where the ANC
government will have to struggle to meet the expectations of a politically
conscious and mobilized black population for jobs, land, housing, safe
water, health care and education, and in Argentina, where economic crisis
threatens the stability of the latest attempt to govern democratically.
Institutional developments, and particularly the emergence of political
parties strong enough to defend class interests in competitive politics, are
crucial for democratic stability, and for the development of civil society as
a counter-balance to the power of the state. Of particular significance here
is the tendency for Third World parties to secure their support through
patronage, clientelism and traditional affiliations, rather than by mobilizing
people with a common socio-economic status. This makes it difficult to
organize political action along class lines, and enables ruling élites to main-
tain their position even when faced with the need to secure mass support.
The reactions of dominant socio-economic groups to demands for greater
social equality and political participation will also be crucial to the future of
fragile democracies. The social dislocation and extended political mobiliza-
tion occasioned by economic change and growth has often been associated
with military intervention on behalf of sectional interests threatened by
democratic politics. Political institutionalization has been found to provide
some protection against a reactionary military-middle class alliance, which
again points to the importance of mass political parties attracting support
from across all regions and ethnic divisions. Military intervention has often
responded to intra-class conflict by managing the state on behalf of fun-
damental economic and social structures that seemed threatened by the
democratic process, or by siding with one middle-class faction (perhaps
associated with a particular ethnic group) and dismantling the political insti-
tutions through which other factions articulated their interests.


280 Understanding Third World Politics

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