Egyptian chaos shows Western-style democracy not universal panacea

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Egyptian chaos shows Western-style democracy not universal panacea

By Zhu Zhangping (Global Times) 08:27, August 09, 2013

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Is democracy a panacea? This is one of the most controversial questions in current China. In some people's views, China could establish a much cleaner, fairer and more prosperous society by applying the Western democracy.

There is no doubt that after three decades' rapid social transformation, acute challenges have emerged in China: the wealth gap has widened to an alarming level, corruption is widespread, and social inequality is growing fast.

Democracy is a good ideal that serves the people and benefits the people, but different countries use different types of governance to carry out democracy. There is neither a unique democracy that suits all countries, nor a model that is completely perfect.

For example, the US is a constitutional republic, in which the president, congress and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.

The UK, whose citizens just showed a mania for the newborn royal baby, is a constitutional monarchy that plays a leading role in parliamentary democracy.

France uses a semi-presidential system in which a popularly elected president exists alongside a prime minister and cabinet who are responsible to the legislature of a state.

For the majority of ordinary people, life is the most important. To ensure sound economic growth, create more jobs, and improve peoples' livelihood is still the most important task for governments, no matter whether in developed or developing countries.

Between 2005 and 2008, the Egyptian economy had a steady 7 percent GDP growth, but after the global financial crisis, its growth rate slowed to about 5 percent.

The double crises of food and economy deteriorated people's livelihood and deprived many youths of the jobs in the Middle East, which lowered popular tolerance of corruption, the income gap and soaring commodity prices.

But after Egypt became democratic in 2011, the growth has fallen from 5 percent to about 2 percent, unemployment rose from 9 percent to over 13 percent, budget deficit more than doubled, food prices rose further.

The first elected president could neither reverse the wealth gap, nor stop corruption. And it's the Egyptian people, especially the poor, who continue to suffer most from the difficult times.

China is also entering a key turning point of economic transition. The Chinese leadership is determined to propel economic restructuring at the cost of slower growth, but has set a bottom line of 7 percent GDP growth this year.

The Egyptian situation is a lesson for emerging countries. On the one hand, China has to accelerate reforms to narrow the wealth gap, increase social equality and combat corruption. But on the other hand, China should also learn from the Egyptian lesson and insist on a democratic model that suits itself.