Democracy is always trial and error: Experts

Updated: 2015-05-26 06:59

By Luis Liu in Hong Kong(HK Edition)

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Democracy has always been an ongoing process requiring years of trial and error, leading political scientists argue.

Opposition demands for democracy which meets "international standards" commonly look to Western countries such as the Britain and the United States.

But at the beginning their systems enfranchised only a small proportion of people, University of Hong Kong Department of Politics and Public Administration Associate Professor Yan Xiaojun told China Daily.

 Democracy is always trial and error: Experts

Pedestrians walk past a "2017 Make it happen!" promotional placard for universal suffrage in Central. The government has launched a city-wide campaign for striving to enhance Hong Kong people's understanding of the reform proposals on the method for selecting the Chief Executive in 2017. Roy Liu / China Daily

The current systems admired by opposition members began as imperfect arrangements, adapting and evolving through rounds of amendments, Yan said.

African Americans, women and native Americans were left off the list of voters when the US's founding fathers first conceived its electoral system in 1787.

African Americans had to wait 83 years for legal protections, enacted in 1870 when the US Congress prohibited federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous conditions of servitude.

This legal protection did not become a reality, Yan said. He said local governments instituted biased literary tests effectively barring African Americans from voting booths. This left large sections of the black population disenfranchised for almost another century.

Women had to wait 144 years after the foundation of the US before they won the right to vote. But it wasn't until 1965 that the US had universal suffrage, encouraged by its Civil Rights Movement. This was nearly 200 years after the country first decided its leader would be elected, Yan said.

In Britain, voting rights remained the exclusive domain of elites and the nobles in 1801, limited to those with properties and land ownerships, Yan said.

A generation later changes in 1832 allowed 3 percent of the nation's total population the right to select members of parliament, with enfranchisement growing - albeit slowly. Only after World War II, 144 years after the country's richest and most powerful initiated the process of democratization, did Britain secure universal suffrage.

Democracy is always trial and error: Experts

"Election systems that expand political participation gradually worked better as we see in history," Yan said. "Countries that enjoyed full universal suffrage overnight, as in the case of many decolonized countries post World War II, exhibit problems adapting their societies to crash democratization," Yan said.

Late professor of political science at Yale University Robert Dahl echoed Yan's view in his book Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition.

Dahl argued there were three methods for moving from a tyranny to a democracy in history: gradual expansion of political participation from a ruling circle to the public; a ruling clique giving the public an open election with gradual improvements; or a sudden change to direct democratic elections.

Dahl favored a gradual transition because it offered the most stability and continuity for growth.

Compared with many countries, Hong Kong's political development has occurred quickly and in an orderly manner since the 1997 handover. The city's previous British administration was absolute - appointed by London.

Hong Kong, with its various and sometimes competing interests, made a Nominating Committee necessary to ensure the concerns of all sectors could be addressed. This was to balance diversified interests in the city, Yan explained.

Peking University School of International Studies Vice-Dean Tang Shiqi said the most important thing for Hong Kong was to take the first step. This was because robust election systems took time to develop.

In developing strong democracies special care had to be taken in adapting systems to local needs. Hong Kong needed a model that could satisfy its own demands while maintaining a working relationship with the central government.

"All models of democracy are derived from legal frameworks. That is the premise of any election systems in world history," Tang said.

luisliu@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 05/26/2015 page4)