Within less than a decade, the evocative term illiberal democracy has spawned a literature that is still expanding. Fareed Zakaria used the term in an article in the Foreign Affairs Weekly that he subsequently expanded in The Future of Freedom.
The relation between democracy and capitalism as a facilitator economic system has engaged political scientists for long. Marx was the first to point out that it was the economic structure of the society that determined the political superstructure. Capitalism, according to him, was therefore essentially linked to the development of democracy.
Zakaria showed how the reverse is not possible. Capitalism can develop without democracy taking root but democracy is difficult to nurture in the absence of sound institutions like the ones capitalism spawns. This includes the politico-legal framework to enforce contract. Writing about Russia?s trouble with market economy, former Fed chairman, Alan Greenspan also came to the similar conclusion. Watching the growth and expansion of the Asian economies like Singapore and Hong Kong makes that difference quite clear. Nearer home, Pakistan has been one where the vestiges of a feudal structure survives and often engulfs democracy as market economy is yet to take deep root.
Zakaria?s latest book, The Post American World, moves away from this theme to explore the new debate engaging the world. After the end of cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall ended one of the superpowers, it was the US, the only superpower in a unipolar world which became the subject of scrutiny. Zakaria has identified 1979 as the year when the erstwhile USSR met its hubris by marching into Afghanistan. Later historians would ponder if the invasion of Iraq in 2005 did the same to US.
While the central logic would seem somewhat familiar to the readers in India, Zakaria?s perspectives still make for a very good read. For instance his comparison of the new world order as something like a Bollywood movie ? thoroughly modern yet retaining the powerful elements of local culture, is a very refreshing view of the new elements shaping the world in this century. In his take on the role of China and India vis-?-vis US, the arguments seem familiar. According to him the development of India and China as new entities have the potential to overtake or at least challenge the USA on the global stage. He of course explores the theme on the economic logic. According to him, China has definitely expanded the international discourse that at one time only centered on US, UK, Germany, France and Russia. On India he is less sanguine, and with good reasons. The reason, not surprisingly, is its polity that is dragging down the impact of the massive economic growth.
?Ultimately the base of American power ? a vibrant American society ? was its greatest strength and its weakness. It produced America?s gigantic economy and vibrant society. But it also made its rise halting, its course erratic and its involvement on the world stage always fragile. Perhaps India will have a similar experience: it will have a society able to respond superbly to the opportunities of a globalised world, one that will grow and prosper in the global economy and society. But India?s political system is weak and porous and thus not well equipped to play its rightful role in this new world. A series of crises might change all this, but in the absence of a shock to the system, India?s society will stay ahead of the Indian state in the new global game?. As a result, in the new world order, while China will be able to take on centre stage, India will be an economic super power but only a regional political satrap.
Naturally he is scathing on the opponents of India?US nuclear deal. He says ?many Indian elites have continued to view the world through a Nehruvian prism ? India as a poor virtuous third world country?. He says they know ?how to operate in that world, whom to beg from and whom to be belligerent with?. Zakaria concludes, ?whichever way the nuclear deal goes the difficulties of its passage in New Delhi highlight the central constraint on the exercise of Indian power in the years ahead? It cannot harness its national power for national purpose?. Power, whether via the electric lines or off it, seems therefore destined to cripple India. In fact it is not without reason that post reform, India?s two major political crises have been on power ? Dabhol power project and the India-US nuclear deal.
But ultimately this is the Newsweek International editors? call to America to reinvent itself. To get away from the atmosphere of fear and panic to a belief that ?openness is America?s greatest strength? It has thrived because it has kept itself open to the world? to people and cultures?. America, he says, can then thrive in this new and challenging era.
