Democracy and development: is to democratize the same as to develop?

Abstract

In the 1970’s the popular western perception was that for the so-called Third World to develop, they must modernize in what came to be known as modernization theory. This, in effect, was seen by most developing or emergent states to mean that to develop nations had to Europeanize. From the 1990’s to date the democratic theory of development has seemed to have superseded the modernization theory by demanding that to develop nations have to democratize by which democracy has to meet European conception of it. The latter has led to various uprisings in some nations as there are demands for regime change and attempts at toppling governments perceived by the West to be undemocratic. This paper sought to establish that democracy is not intrinsically linked to development and that though democracy can prove a catalyst to development, the extent it does so depends on the development variables. Such variables include the human capital and capacity, natural resources or endowment and the level of socio-cultural attainment of the citizenry. The paper concluded that democracy guarantees freedom and participation which can make or mar development depending on the aforementioned variables and their proper interplay. Above all, it avows that development can be without democracy and there can be democracy without development much as there is no internal relationship between them.