Do not confuse the spirit of conciliation with the absence of criticism: the first is desirable while the second disastrous for democracy.
The term "democracy" is the most important toiled Science contemporary politics. In the early nineties, consolidated the global democratic aspirations with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the expansion of the "third wave of democratization", no one seemed to contest its promising future. An important author, Francis Fukuyama, exuded optimism that, which led him to postulate, in a famous book, 'The end of history' as the result of a global consensus around liberal democracy and capitalism as optimal models political and economic development.
However, at least in the political, contradicts the current balance all odds. The final report FreedomHouse , the body responsible for measuring the overall levels of democracy, shows that today only 60 percent of the world's countries are democracies and a good part of this percentage are democracies "front" government hiding despotic.
In the classification made FreedomHouse , are three ranges for the countries: free, partly free and not free. As expected, Colombia remains stagnant within states "partly free" since it was first illustrated with maps measurement in 2002. Why?
Because the indicators of modern democracy are not limited to the fact electoral majority. The concept of democracy is complex and includes, besides conducting regular and peaceful elections to elect representatives for a limited time, other requirements refer not only to political rights but also civil liberties, limits on the power chosen by the majority and respect for minorities.
Without claim of completeness, a country that today democratic seriously say must meet at least the following conditions: respect for the principle of alternation in power, so as to limit their exercise time by a single party or person; separation and balance of public powers, guaranteed by system of constitutional checks and balances designed to prevent concentration, freedom of press to promote the production of unbiased information to neutralize the media manipulation that spontaneously tend to the establishment, its sponsors economic and market logic of the mass media communication, and especially the right of opposition and criticism.
The opposition is essential to democracy because it is not legitimate consensus can be built in an atmosphere of unanimity, where all political actors merge into one party and who exercises no criticism. "May the power control power, "Montesquieu's fundamental currency, its implementation is the existence of opposing forces between the owners.
If anything characterizes democracy as a superior form of government is to open channels for peaceful expression of dissent and nonconformity. It is what allows you better ensure that any other structure of government substantial levels of participation, freedom and pluralism to democratic actors can express, significantly, their opinions and preferences. The essence of democracy is not to eliminate the contradiction or conflict but transmute into agreements and consensus are built precisely from dissent.
The issue of opposition is crucial in the middle of the proposed National Unity, so fashionable these days in the country but of Hispanic descent. The famous "drive" around the winner of the day is as old as politics itself. "But if are the same dogs with different collars, "was the phrase uttered by Ferdinand VII when he discovered, to regain the throne three years after the liberal revolution of 1820, which volunteer soldiers now" realists "who supported him were the same ones that formed the revolutionary militias was revolted. Subsequently, the Moncloa Pacts facilitated the union of the main political parties that allowed him to Spain to make the transition to peaceful democracy after the fall of Franco. So the national unity pact in the main European benchmark, support a historical evaluation both negative and positive.
addition, proposals have a familiar unanimity in our own political history from the National Front (1958-1974), whose balance is also ambivalent: This agreement has served to slow the bloodshed bipartisan flooding into the country for the period but also to institutionalize exclusion, eliminating minorities from the political scene for over three decades.
In the latest issue of Foreign Policy is a list of the worst tyrants of the world ( The Worst of the Worst , the title of the article by George Ayittey). There are 23 dictators including Hugo Chávez, to quote the only Latin American example of the list, is ranked 18. Interestingly, the hallmark of all these national heroes that are installed in power indefinitely is that (when not appeal to torture and genocide) spy or, otherwise, they manage to neutralize or to deal definitively with the opposition.
is too early to know how the proposal will result in particular of the new national unity government in terms of independence from other political forces. The most pessimistic forecasts point to the creation of a dominant party regime of the old-style Mexican PRI. However, this view is exaggerated for the real scope of the pact will depend on management to give the "unity" as well who calls who answer the call.
Do not confuse the spirit of conciliation with the absence of criticism: the first is desirable while the second disastrous for democracy. Petro's approach to begin talks with the new government program and the path chosen by the Green Party of "deliberative independence" are examples of democratic maturity rather than political opportunism. Both support a positive reading at the moment as signs of the beginning of a constructive dialogue is healthy for the political system.
is to remember that the March 26 Colombia escaped a 12-year government continued the same man (who would have been the longest democratic history of the country) due to a failure historic Constitutional Court safeguarded the principle of alternation of power and saved democracy.
The incoming government has so far given several samples to be plausibly different outgoing respectful of the independence of the judiciary, technocratic rather than patronage in the appointment of senior officials, conciliatory rather than arson against their rivals. At least with regard to form, the style of government that begins to unfold Juan Manuel Santos congratulations invalidate the hypothesis of continuity.
http://www.semana.com/noticias-opinion-on-line / democracia-unidad-nacional/141505.aspx
