Democratization Of China And Iran example essay topic

China and Iran: Transition to Democracy Throughout the course of history, there have been Communist, Socialist, Democratic governments and dictatorships, but the most equitable form of government has been Democracy. All these different forms of government have been successful at some time, but in today's world in order for the process of democratization to succeed, many factors have to be favorable for success to be achieved. In this essay, the democratization of China and Iran will be discussed. One has been successful where the other has not emerged.

The process and factors that lead to their present outcomes will be discussed. The democratization of China had been a very slow process. China's process of democratization has been long in coming, "for 160 years since the Opium War, China has struggled through countless tortuous paths in pursuit of democratization. Millions of people with lofty ideals sacrificed for it; a number of them were killed by those who resisted democratization, but even more died as a result of internal conflicts". 1 These deaths were not in vain, they taught the people of China a very valuable lesson and after the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1969), which was a crucial period when many political and social reforms were initiated, the people of China started to accept these political reforms. "The legitimacy of the Communist government had been exhausted.

Cultural Revolution raised questions to the Chinese about the legitimacy of the former communist regime". 2 There were many events that led to the democratization. The incident at Tiananmen Square was a major event (June 1989) in twentieth century Chinese history, as well as one of the causes of the downfall of communism in many countries. During this incident students marched and demonstrated against the CCP. It was watched by the world via television, it marked the beginning of the third period of modern Chinese foreign policy. The first was coterminous with Mao Zedong's rule, 1949-1976, and the second was coterminous with the economic reform movement of 1977-1988, led by Deng Xiaoping.

Under Mao, Beijing's foreign policy was determined mostly by domestic factors. The first of these was revolutionary politics. The most important domestic change was replacement of Maoist radicalism by Dentist pragmatic moderation and a corresponding shift from the primacy of politics to that of economics. "Tiananmen symbolized the beginning of the end of communist rule in China, contributed to the end of Marxism-Leninism globally, and affected China's foreign relations in two ways. Domestically, it temporarily halted reformism and elevated the power of the elderly conservative ideologues, their neo-Maoist philosophy, and the power of the army in the political arena". 10 "In 1978, Mr. Deng Xiaoping, who was credited with bringing about China's post 1978 economic reforms and with leading the country onto the path of modernization, ordered to open up the economy and began to reform".

3 After the change brought forward by the Cultural Revolution the Chinese government began to make political reforms that led to the formation and acceptance of democratization. "These 25 years of success established the legitimacy of the present government". 4 During this time the opposition to reform were more open to peaceful debate than in the past. "These past twenty years differed from the past one hundred in a sense that even though some people viewed democratization with extremely orthodox communism and others with extremely liberal capitalism; they didn't clash with each other as in the past simply because of differences in opinions". 5 There differences of opinion sparked constructive debate over the underlining issues which eventually led them to unity. A greater impact on China's political modernization is "in the late 1980's and early 1990's a wave of democratization swept through the Soviet camp, the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries.

Although the Chinese Communist Party (here after CCP) was independent of the Soviet camp at that time, the Chinese revolution and the establishment of the CCP were modeled on the Russian Bolshevik revolution". 7 The impact of the end of communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe on China, therefore, was tremendous. However, the CCP ruling elite managed to divert the impact by convincing its members and the general public that only to continue the market-oriented economic reform and further integrate China into the world community can save both China from disintegration and the CCP from a similar fate as the former Soviet Communist Party. "In the middle of 1990's the CCP ruling elite faced another political challenge from their old antagonists, the KMT ruling elite, who began to democratize Taiwan's political system and to end the one-party regime in Taiwan. Taiwan's successful transition to democracy should have a greater enduring impact on China's political development owing to the sides' cultural heritage, political legacy, economic links, and similar development route". 8"The success of a peaceful democratic transition in Taiwan had demonstrated that Chinese political culture is flexible enough to incorporate liberal and pro-democratic values.

This common cultural heritage will facilitate the dissemination of the experience of Taiwan's democratization into mainland China with the broadening of cross-Strait cultural, academic, business, and official exchanges". 9 "Now we have a preliminary framework of the market economy, democracy and law has been written into the constitution, and most importantly, at the end of 2001, China was accepted into the WTO, which marked its reception of conventional international practices and the connecting rails across different systems". 6 So far the democratization of China has been a success. The economy is booming and the quality of life for its citizens has greatly improved.

Its citizens used to ride bicycles, now they are able to buys cars. International Corporations are making large investments in China. However the process is not finished yet. It is a never ending process because the political, economic and cultural climates are always in a state of flux. Therefore China's public, its leaders and other international leaders must adapt to the fluidness of the situation and continue to champion the fight for democratization. As an example of a country were the democratization has not emerged successfully is Iran.

In Iran there are several inherent cultural and political factors that inhibit democratization from getting a foot hold. "The process of completing democratization faces certain impediments within the Iranian context and is chiefly and adversely affected by three factors: the inherent incompatibility of Islam and democracy, the Vela yat-e Faith (rule of the supreme religious jurist), and significant socio-cultural factors in Iran". 11 Today the struggle to sustain democratic initiatives in Iran is in its embryonic stages, needing to be nurtured and cared for, while western democracies are self-sustaining, fully developed and functional systems that matured over many centuries". 12 "First we must discuss the religion of Islam as it pertains to each aspect of the process of democratization with special consideration for the dominant traditional / conservative interpretation of the Qur " an". 13 "However, in an Islamic state, it is the responsibility of the state to carry out the will of God. So, Islam as a personal religion or cultural belief system would not have the power behind the execution of the Divine Will the way a theocratic regime would, such as the Taliban or the Islamic Republic of Iran".

14 "Perhaps Islamic government in Iran is not democratic because it was a violent and bloody revolution that brought it to power which then leads to the absolutist and tyrannical elements that control the avenues of change". 15 "But this still cannot explain the fundamental theological contradictions and disconnects that are directly tied to the Qur " an and the subsequent Holy Law that it provides". 16"Islam is well-known for its fatalistic belief system, or in other words the complete lack of free-will that humanity possesses". 18 "This system of government is typically defined as rule-by-consensus that on the surface appears to be quite democratic in nature. However, a closer probing will reveal the historical truth that rule-by-consensus in the Islamic context was anything but democratic, at least in terms that we would appreciate in the modern world. Firstly, women were not included in this process of consensus rule.

Secondly, members of other religions were not allowed to participate in the government that ruled them (which is in contradiction to the definition of democratization). The value of Islamic consensus in a modern setting has drastically altered and women can participate in parliamentary politics in Iran thus making it more democratic". 19 "All is pre-determined in the course of events according to the Qur " an, and by extension, Allah. How can the ideals of democracy (where, through people's choices are their successes or failures determined) exist for "one who submits to the will of God"?

There is no freedom in submission and freedom is an integral part of democracy and democratization. An Islamic polity can, with great effort and liberal interpretation make political Islam provide some democratic relief. But it pales in progress compared to accomplishing the same democratization within a secular framework as is evident it post- WWII Japan that now hosts a thriving democracy". 20 "There are not simply legal and institutional impediments to democratization but also socio-cultural ones. Twelver Shi " ism in Iran is structured in a similar way to the Catholic Church with ranked positions according to the level of religious scholarship.

The value that Iranian Muslims place on the figure of the cleric is much more reverent than in the Sunni form of Islam that is not typified by a hierarchical clergy. The reverence of clerics dates back to the beginnings of the Zoroastrian Orthodoxy during the Sassanid period. The interpretation of faith is not typically in the hands of the believer such as is the case in Sunni Islam. Instead, it is the cleric that clarifies, explicates and instructs the laity as to what religion (in this case Twelver Shi " ite Islam) is and how it should be interpreted.

This compounds the difficulty of creating a synthesis between Islam and democracy because of the structural nature of Twelver Shi " ism as opposed to Sunni Islam that may, in fact, be much more compatible with democracy in this regard". 21 "The impediments of democratization most certainly have given rise to opposing forces and trends that seek to remove these obstacles from the process of democratization. In contemporary Iranian politics there are four major trends that are covertly or overtly bringing about transition in Iran: nationalism, feminism, intellectualism, and external pressures being realized internally". 22 "One trend that is promoting democratization with a loud and powerful voice is that of Iran's flourishing feminist movement. Women have found it exceedingly difficult to be treated equally under Islamic law".

23"Women are not afforded the same property rights, they cannot be judges, men retain custody of children almost invariably (Mir-Hosseini, 30), women must have permission from their husbands or a close male relation to travel far from the home, witnessing a crime takes a court testimony of two women to equal that of a male witness, getting an abortion requires the permission of the husband". 24 "Outside factors can influence the type of government that is favored. In Iran, American's wishes for a democratic government have been an influence America's call for greater democracy in the region is surely aimed at creating unrest in Iranian society (and the Greater Middle East) to effectuate the creation of democratic states. This has been the official policy of President George W. Bush in the region for some time now". 25 Immigration patterns can also influence the process of democratization. "According to the 2000 United States census, Iran is one of the top three countries for land of origin in terms of immigration to the United States.

The "brain-drain" that Iran is experiencing due to immigration will have adverse consequences for sustainable development in the country". 26 There were many factors that determine if the process of democratization is to be successful or unsuccessful. The modernization of China has been was more successful than the democratization of Iran for several reasons. Iran's culture is mostly based on religious beliefs and the government has to deal with this separate sovereign power. Islam as a personal religion or cultural belief system would not have the power behind the execution of the Divine Will the way a theocratic regime would, such as the Taliban or the Islamic Republic of Iran". These factors will have to change if democratization is to succeed in Iran.

China is growing into a modern government because the people of China want modernization in China. Some of the events that lead to the modernization of China were the Cultural revolution, the democratization of Taiwan, the Tiananmen Square incident, Mao Zedong's death, the fall of USSR. A country seeking to change their form of government should start slow and be patient because the process takes many years. Evaluation of the present cultural, economic and political climates is crucial, it should be determined whether the existing climates are conducive to the success of democratization.

Democratization like Rome is not built in a day, it take lots of time to get its foothold and grow into a legitimate, lastly, equitable government.