Friday 6 April 2007

The Road to Modernisation

“…If a society [wants] to be modern, there [is] no alternative to a market economy and a democratic political system. Not everyone wanted to be modern, of course, and not everyone could put in place the institutions and policies necessary to make democracy and capitalism work, but no alternative system would yield better results.

…[But] long before you have a liberal democracy, you have to have a functioning state… This is something that cannot be taken for granted…

…Democratic transitions need to be driven by societies that want democracy, and since the latter requires institutions, it is usually a fairly long and drawn out process…”

- Francis Fukuyama


Go out and vote.


Elanor

4 comments:

zcer said...

vote? that would be plenty of steps plenty too quick.

we need to first get over the democracy and the free market = evil mentality first.

thats why we need such blogs to inject modern thinking, and vaccinate against fundamentalist ideas.

besides, i cannot yet vote, and i hate bundled packages. and ppl vote like they would for their favorite football team. (that was an over-generalization)

i like to think i am always voting in a sense anytime i voice my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Sorry dear... no incentive to vote.

I do however, have an incentive to migrate to Australia (higher pays, more social security, lower cost of living, blablabla)

X

Anonymous said...

And oh, zcer, do go look up Bangladesh's voting system, if you think "get[ting] over the democracy and the free market = evil mentality first" is correct.

Their oppositions keep saying similar things, but when the opposition becomes the govt, they continue the same old system...

Talk about hypocracy

X

zcer said...

X: that's why ideally, we should vote for policies, not politicians! though i know the party system is a practical necessity...

If i do vote, then i'll vote for the party that has the highest probability of implementing the policies i would want. Or, as i would like to think, the least bad party.