banking services chronicle annual
banking services chronicle annual subscription published this article They did so because of economic and geopolitical interests and they usually installed rabid dictators in place of the deposed elected functionaries. This hypocrisy cost them dearly. Few in the poor and developing world believe that the United States or any of its allies are out to further the causes of democracy human rights and global peace. The nations of the West have sown cynicism and they are reaping strife and terrorism in return. Moreover democracy is far from what it is made out to be. Confronted with history the myth breaks down. For instance it is maintained by their chief proponents that democracies are more peaceful than dictatorships. But the two most belligerent countries in the world are by a wide margin Israel and the United States closely followed by the United Kingdom. As of late China is one of the most tranquil polities. Democracies are said to be inherently stable or to successfully incorporate the instability inherent in politics. This too is a confabulation. The Weimar Republic gave birth to Adolf Hitler and Italy had almost 50 governments in as many years. The bloodiest civil wars in history erupted in Republican Spain and seven decades earlier in the United States. Czechoslovakia the USSR and Yugoslavia imploded upon becoming democratic having survived intact for more than half a century as tyrannies. Democracies are said to be conducive to economic growth indeed to be a prerequisite to such. But the fastest economic growth rates in history go to imperial Rome Nazi Germany Stalinist Russia and postMao China. Finally how represented is the vox populi even in established democracies In a democracy people can freely protest and make their opinions known no doubt. Sometimes they can even change their representatives though the rate of turnover in the US Congress in the last two decades is lower than it was in the last 20 years of the Politburo. But is this a sufficient incentive or deterrent The members of the various elites in Western democracies are mobile they ceaselessly and facilely hop from one lucrative sinecure to another. Lost the elections as a Senator How about a multimillion dollar book contract a consultant position with a firm you formerly oversaw or regulated your own talk show on television a cushy job in the administration The truth is that voters are powerless. The rich and mighty take care of their own. Malfeasance carries little risk and rarely any sanction. Western democracies are ossified bastions of selfperpetuating interest groups aided and abetted and legitimized by the ritualized spectacle that we call elections. And dont you think the denizens of Africa and Asia and eastern Europe and the Middle East are blissfully unaware of this charade. banking services chronicle annual subscription