... who have seen unprecedented economic growth since 1960s under both democratic and non-democratic governments, nor for the case of India which has experienced little development despite the fact that it has been a democratic republic since its conception in 1948 (Jayal, 1997). The current trend to empower civil society and insert political democracy into Third World countries in order to promote development may actually have the opposite effect if the introduction of democracy is premature. The Western policies appear to go against the grain of most past examples where development has occurred before democracy was established. Even their own histories suggest that the precondition of development cannot be democracy and yet they continue to try to import their own ideal of liberal democracy to countries where development has not yet occurred. This essay aims to analyse whether such a strategy for promoting development is viable and whether popular empowerment through ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now