Amartya Sen Democracy And Its Globail Roots

I25OCTOBER6,2003 -THE NEW REPUBLICIn "You Thmred to Me," for instance, hemoves down the scale in C major, makingimpressive-sounding augmented chordswith small variations on simple triads.Costello has gone all mushy for augmented chords, which sound jazzy and sophisticated, and he is nearly as charmed bythe Dorian mode, which can have aneerie quality. His mastery of these devicesis still developing; at points Costello'sharmony is arbitrarily complex, not yetorganic. Compositionally, much of Northsounds like exercises, although that is toCostello's credit, in one sense. (He andI are roughly the same age, and I find itprogressively more difficult to get myselfto do exercises of any sort.) That Costellohas the wherewithal to try a new musicalinstrument and to learn a new set of skillsis remarkable in itself, and the resultingmusic is far more interesting than hearing him play "Pump It Up" for the jillionth time. (Costello plays piano-in amanner so spare it is nearly absent-ontwo tracks of North, and his longtimekeyboardist Steve Nieve plays much thesame way on all the others.)Lyrically, North has Costello's mostdisciplined writing-not his most dynamic (This Year's Model) nor his mostimaginative (ImperialBedroom), but hismost conversational, his simplest. Habitually verbose, Costello barely sounds likehimself here. Each song on North hasfewer than half the words of a typical selection on any previous Elvis Costello album, and they are employed with uncommon restTaint. Only once does Costellouse Tin Pan Alley cliches, in "I'm Inthe Mood Again," and he does so with atheatrical wink: "I lay my head down onfine linens and satin/Away from the madlhatters who live in Manhattan/The Empire State Building illuminating the sky/I'm in the mood, I'm in the mood, I'm inthe mood again."lThe language is mostlypersonal and intimate, with Costelloassuming fewer roles than usual. He issinging as himself, celebrating love andbemoaning its futility, and ruminating onthe passage of time: "I never did what Iwas told/I trampled though the amberand the burnished gold/But now I clearlysee how cruel the young can be."Modulating his voice to accommodatethe material, Costello sings his sedate newsongs in a more tempered version of the;mellow baritone into which he has shifted!for ballads since he crooned "My Funny,Valentine" on the B-side of a single in1978. Some of his old fans have belittledhim for trying to be Frank Sinatra, but the.classic pop singer to whom he is most in-,debted is Billy Eckstine, the original mu-,sically adventurous jazz-pop vocalist with'a bad-boy reputation and a throbbing.vibrato. I know Costello is an admirer ofthe late "Mr. B" because I saw him sittingwith his mother and studying Eckstine inperformance at the Blue Note nightclub'in Manhattan sometime in the late 1980slIt was a strange, grim evening. Eckstm&while vigorous and in good voice, hadfallen into disfavor and was struggling to!reclaim his lost glory. As his finale, hle0fumbled through a pandering medley ofrecent pop hits far beneath an artist With!his gifts-"Love the One You're With",and "Walk a Mile in My Shoes," I remem-'ber, and somnething else of that ilk, maybei"Gentle on My Mind." North may be aflawed effort, but its defects are aspirational, and I would rather suffer them.than watch another great artist go south. m.IIAmartya SenDemocracy and Its Globail RootsWhy democratization isnot the same as Westernization. ,# FI.HERE IS NO MYSTERY IN THEfact that the iimnediateprospects of democracy inIraq, to be ushered in by theAmerican-led alliance, arebeing viewed with increasing skepticism.The evident ambiguities in the goals ofthe occupation and the lack of clarityabout the process of democratizationmake these doubts inescapable. But itwould be a serious mistake to translatethese uncertainties about the immediateprospects of a democratic Iraq into a larger case for skepticism about the generalpossibility of-and indeed the need forhaving democracy in Iraq, or in any othercountry that is deprived of it. Nor is therea general ground here for uneasinessabout providing global support for thestruggle for democracy around the world,which is the most profound challenge of:;our tines. Democracy movements acrossthe globe (in South Africa and Argentinaand Indonesia yesterday, in Burma andZitnbabwe and elsewhere today) reflectpeople's determination to fight for political participation and an effective voice.Apprehensions about current events inIraq have to be seen in their specific conItext; there is a big world beyond.It is important to consider, in thebroader arena, two general objections tothe advocacy of democracy that have recently gained much ground in international debates and which tend to colordiscussions of foreign affairs, particularly in America and Europe. There are,first, doubts about what democracy canachieve in poorer countries. Is democracynot a barrier that obstructs the processof development and deflects attentionfrom the priorities of economic and socialchange, such as providing adequate food,::iStid:Ftft:::i[ff raising income per head, and carrying outinstitutional reform? It is also argued thatdemocratic governance can be deeply illiberal and can inflict suffering on thosewho do not belong to the ruling majorityin a democracy. Are vulnerable groups,not better served by the protection thatauthoritarian governance can provide? IThe second line of attack concentrates;on historical and cultural doubts aboutadvocating democracy for people whodo not, allegedly, "know" it.'The endorse-,ment of democracy as a general rule forall people, whether by national or inter-:national bodies or by human rights ac-'tivists, is frequently castigated on the,ground that it involves an attempted im Iposition of Western values and Western IAmartya Sen is master of Trinity College,'Cambridge.He received the Nobel Prizcin Economics inI998.I

-Il. THE NEW REPUBLICpractices on non-Western societies. Theargument goes much beyond acknowledging that democracy is a predominantly Western practice in the contemporaryworld, as it certainly is.It takes the formof presuming that democracy is an idea ofwhich the ro6ts can be found exclusivelyin some distinctively Western thoughtthat has flourished uniquely in Europeand nowhere else-for a very long time. .HESE ARE LEGITIMATEANDcogent questions, and they are,understandably, being askedLL with some persistence. But arethese misgivings really well-founded? Inarguing that they are not, it is important to note that these lines of criticismare not altogether unlinked. Indeed, theflaws in both lie primarily in the attemptto see democracy in an unduly narrowand restricted way-in particular, exclusively in terms of public balloting and notmuch more broadly, in terms of whatJohn Rawls called "the exercise of publicreason." This more capacious concept includes the opportunity for citizens to participate in political discussions and so tobe in a position to influence public choice.In understanding where the two lines ofattack on democratization respectivelygo wrong, it is crucial to appreciate thatdemocracy has demands that transcendthe ballot box.Indeed, voting is only one waythough certainly a very important wayof making public discussions effective,when the opportunity to vote is combined with the opportunity to speak, andto listen, without fear. The force and thereach of elections depend critically onthe opportunity for open public discussion. Balloting alone can be woefully inadequate, as is abundantly illustratedby the astounding electoral victories ofruling tyrannies in authoritarian regimes,from Stalin's Soviet Union to SaddamHussein's Iraq. The problem in thesecases lies not just in the pressure that isbrought to bear on voters in the act ofballoting itself, but in the way public discussion of failures and transgressions isthwarted by censorship, suppression ofpolitical opposition, and violations of basic civil rights and political freedoms.The need to take a broader view ofdemocracy-going well beyond the freedom of elections and ballots-has beenextensively discussed not only in contemporary political philosophy, but also inthe new disciplines of social choice theory and public choice theory, influenced by OCTOBER6,200329economic reasoning as well as by politicalideas. The process of decision-makingthrough discussion can enhance information about a society and about individual priorities, and those priorities may respond to public deliberation. As JamesBuchanan, the leading public choice theorist, argues, "The definition of democracy as 'government by discussion' impliesthat individual values can and do changein the process of decision-making."All this raises deep questions aboutthe dominant focus on balloting and elections in the literature on world affairs, andabout the adequacy of the view, well articulated by Samuel P. Huntington in TheThird Wave; that "elections, open, freeand fair, are the essence of democracy, theinescapable sine qua non." In the broaderperspective of public reasoning, democracy has to give a central place to guaranteeing free public discussion and deliberative interactionsin political thought andpractice-not just through elections norjust for elections. What is required, asRawls observed, is the safeguarding of"diversity of doctrines-the fact of pluralism," which is central to "the public culture of modern democracies," and whichmust be secured in a democracy by "basicrights and liberties."The broader view of democracy interms of public reasoning also allows usto understand that the roots of democracy go much beyond the narrowly confined chronicles of some designated practices that are now seen as specifically"democratic institutions." This basic recognition was clear enough to Tocqueville. In 1835, in Democracy in America,he noted that the "great democratic revolution" then taking place could be seen,from one point of view, as "a new thing,"but it could also be seen, from {a broaderperspective, as part of "the most continuous, ancient, and permanent tendencyknown to history." Although he confinedhis historical examples to Europe's past(pointing to the powerful contributiontoward democratization made by the admission of common people to the ranksof clergy in "the state of France sevenhundred years ago"), Tocqueville's general argument has immensely broaderrelevance.The championing of pluralism, diversity, and basic liberties can be found in thehistory of many societies.The long traditions of encouraging and protecting public debates on political, social, and cultural matters in, say, India, China, Japan,Koiea, Iran, lrkey, the Arab world, andINCIVIL SOCIETY * INDIVIDUAL LIBERTYFREE MARKETS * LIMITED GOVERNMENTe- C A T O e--S Ur R E 1EC 0 U R TR E V I E WVCoui ReviewThe 2002-2003 Supreme CourtTterm promises to be one of themost important of the last decade.The Cato Supreme Court Reviewanalyzes the most important andfar-reaching cases of the year froma classical Madisonian perspective.This edition will review, amongother cases, affirmative action,sexual privacy, intellectual property,aoss burning, commerdal speech,and federalism. 250 pp./ 15.00paper ISBN 1-930865-52-XAvailable at boolstores nationwide.To order call 1-800-767-1241or visit www.cato.org.