The Turmoil in the Arab World
The recent unrest in the Arab world has caused great apprehensions throughout the world. The rapid fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia and the stepping down of the Egyptian president Husni Mubarak has stunned many nations. The wind of change has also blown across the Middle East and shaken several institutions raising questions about the future of the nations given the prevailing state of events. Closer assessments of the revolutionary waves illustrated by the massive demonstrations and disorder reveal that the uprisings have been directly triggered by the state of the current regimes and the oppressive political environments that have dominated for a long time.
The ongoing resistance and mayhems manifested in the Arab countries began in 2011 in Tunisia when the movement began to contest power for Ben Ali and has since then moved to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and many other countries. The unrest is mainly a protestation against the current unfriendly regimes that are full of corruption and have caused joblessness, high cost of living, injustice, and economic decline. The situation is likely to accelerate and affect other countries in the same region or areas far away that often interact with the regions.
Democracy in Southeast Asia
Immediately after the end of the Cold war, Southeast Asia became a potential hothouse for political transformation because the previous rival states regularized their relations and their economies began to witness high economic growth rates. Southeast Asia has had one of the most extensive political scales in world history involving new democracies such as the Leninist states, semi-authoritarian systems, and the right-wing totalitarian administrations.
The region facilitated the success of the third wave of democracies in the Philippines in 1986 and Thailand democracy in 1988. The most intense democratization process has been witnessed in the Indonesian 1998-1999 evolution, which formed the world’s largest Muslim dominated democracy. Southeast Asia has however faced tremendous obstacles in the evolutionary process. The countries in the same area have had partial democracies for a long time while others have been completely dominated by authoritarian systems of leadership.
The Paris peace accords of 1991 and the s United Nations intercession had a significant impact on the Cambodian political atmosphere even though it did not welcome multiparty democracy. Despite the 1990 free and fair general elections, Burma remained unreceptive and inflexible to both internal and external demands for political change. This has been the same case with many other countries in the same region. There is little hope that the countries will collectively embrace democracy in the future.
The Sub-Saharan Democracy
The advancements in democracies in the sub-Saharan African regions are becoming insignificant. In the last couple of years, the continent has experienced a severe steady downturn in sub-Saharan democracies. In 1972, the state of political and civil rights in the regions was so miserable. Dictatorships of different kinds ruled many of the countries. The regimes were mainly characterized by coups with many political leaders declaring themselves as presidents for life.
Elections were marred with terrific violence and bloodshed mixed with intense political manipulations. Ethiopia for example, as a big African country, having a non-parliamentary political system, has recently fallen into an inconsiderate authoritarian leadership under Zenawi. African leaders, both the democrats and nondemocrats spend a lot of funds to plan and organize for elections. Civil society organizations have expressed serious concerns that the elections continue to cost the nations the largest amounts ever spent for elections, especially considering the recent elections in Congo and Nigeria that cost over 590 million dollars and yet were still regarded as ‘not free and fair’. The future of sub-Saharan politics will be at great risk if the nations do not react rapidly to eliminate the current trends.
The Kesselman text
According to the descriptions by the Kesselman text, globalization, and politics in the developing world are a trend that links the vital points in time and the occurrences that have shaped the present era. Globalization identifies the growing depth and the diversity of cross-boundary connections that are significant characteristics of the modern world.
Globalization also analyses the economic and political trends including the reorganization of regimes and the impacts on production as well as redistribution of resources including the workforce together with the intensity of international trade and foreign investments. The occurrence continues to complicate the politics in the developing world and corrodes the capabilities of strong countries that interact directly with the affected regions.