Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Democracy and Inequality in Guyana

May 29, 2013 Editorial

Guyana was part of what one scholar described as a “third wave” of democratisation in the world, following the collapse of the Soviet experiment in 1989. With the PPP having been ensconced in power for the last twenty years through democratic elections and governing through democratic processes, Guyana has also unfortunately followed most of the newly democratising countries, as well as many of the older ones, in ending up with societies that have significantly high levels of inequality of incomes and expenditures between the top and lower strata, even as economic growth rates have been quite respectable.
Economic inequality is measured in the official statistics by several metrics including the popular Gini index, in which a score of “0” means perfect equality and “100”, perfect inequality in terms of distribution of income. The Scandinavian countries and South Korea typically come in at around 25, while the US inequality has been rising very rapidly and is now 47.7, hence the outcry against the top ‘1%’ that owns 40% of its wealth.
Guyana unfortunately lags in the collection of all sorts of data, including the GIni index, but the fact that between 1999 and 2007 our index rose from 43.2 to 44.6 indicates that we are definitely moving in the wrong direction in the equality sweepstakes, implied by the substantive content of democracy, and we have probably surpassed the US in the inequality of our incomes.
In a broader sense, inequality can be considered as having unequal command of resources necessary for our wellbeing, and empirically, one can then speak of economic inequality, gender inequality or political equality and so on.
What we have seen in Guyana, therefore, is that while the vaunted “democratisation” has reduced political inequality (the vote of every adult counts equally, unlike what prevailed between 1968 and 1985), it has not necessarily reduced inequality in other realms, including the family and other social categories.
There is one school of thought that has risen to the fore with the neo-liberal ideology that is now ascendant, that for developing countries, there will be a period of inevitable rising inequality as the economy demands the wage discipline to raise productivity and increase competitiveness. Concerns have therefore been raised as to whether economic inequality diminishes the quality of democracy. This could arise from several angles, all of which we see operating in our country today.
There is, firstly, the always overweening level of influence the wealthier sections of society have on the policy makers. When this strata is very thin, the rest of the society may vote individuals into office, but those individuals would have already been vetted by the wealthy, who have also established their agenda. The end state of this incestuousness leads to massive corruption of the institutions of the state to ensure that the wealthy stratus acquire more wealth “legally”. This gaming of the political system completely vitiates the democratic principle of government “for the people, by the people and of the people”.
As a result, the effectively disenfranchised sections of the populace can become very turned off by the oligarchic politics and in this sense, reduce the democratic imperative which depends on the participation of all the people. We have seen an increasingly smaller percentage of voters showing up at the polls and the trend shows all signs of continuing. The neglected voters may then be susceptible to the populist rhetoric of some politicians who want to carve out a niche for themselves, even though the populist policies are only a “panacea” that inevitably results in the destruction of the economic system and society.
But cross-country studies have shown that democratic rule does not have to result in the stark inequality that is being created today, nor is there the need to hold off democracy until a “threshold” income level is achieved, as some propose. There are two primary strategies that can be implemented: universal policies of social assistance and targeting assistance more narrowly to make sure that it benefits the poor within a social democratic order.

 

 

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | November, 20th, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

 

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Guyana Beverages Inc. partners with GFF for Maid Marian Wheat Up Women’s Cup

Guyana Beverages Inc. partners with GFF for Maid Marian Wheat Up...

Nov 29, 2024

  (GFF) — Guyana Beverages Inc (GBI) in an effort to contribute to the development of women’s football has partnered with the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) as a sponsor of the Maid Marian...
Read More
GFF provides support to EBFA U14 Boys’ League

GFF provides support to EBFA U14 Boys’ League

Nov 29, 2024

Athletics scores big at NSC National Sports Awards

Athletics scores big at NSC National Sports

Nov 29, 2024

St. Theresa’s Primary triumph in Republic Bank ‘Five for Fun’ National Finals

St. Theresa’s Primary triumph in Republic Bank...

Nov 29, 2024

Wakenaam Masters to face Parika Defenders in T20 softball affair on Saturday night

Wakenaam Masters to face Parika Defenders in T20...

Nov 29, 2024

Bakewell supports Kashif and Shanghai Futsal tourney

Bakewell supports Kashif and Shanghai Futsal...

Nov 28, 2024

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]