Two Elaborations on the Argument

In: New political economy, Band 7, Heft 2, S. 273-275

Abstract

A comment on Adrian Leftwich's, "A Contradiction in the Politics of Economics" (2002) agrees that formal democracy does not always lead to political & social equality. However, an expansion of his argument suggests that the survival of democracy may actually require a lack of attempts to advance popular participation & economic redistribution. Although the same forces usually advance both formal democracy & participatory/social democracy, other variables may favor formal democracy while undermining significant progress toward participation & redistribution. The strong preference for formally democratic regimes on the part of the US, as well as the imposition of their preferences by the International Monetary Fund & the World Bank, has seriously hampered any possibility of political choice (& hence democratic political participation) on the part of developing countries faced with financial crises. J. Lindroth