Is democracy necessarily the right system of government for every country? Should we encourage every country towards democracy? Politicians and philosophers have given their opinions on this over the years. Read these perspectives and then share your own in your Response Journal.
Thomas Hobbes (philosopher)
In his 1651 book Leviathan, Hobbes declared that a strong leader or government was the most important thing for any society. Without that, people would stop obeying the law and the resulting chaos would threaten everyone’s safety and property. Giving people a democratic say could even weaken a country, because disagreement and division were as good as guaranteed. Strong leadership or a strong government could take decisions quickly and maintain order and control.
Samuel Huntington (political scientist)
Huntington wrote a book called The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), in which he argued that it should not be the job of democratic countries to spread democracy, but rather to protect themselves from non-democratic countries. Huntington argued that some cultures are not suited to democracy and trying to get them to adopt democratic systems would only lead to conflict and possibly war.
Francis Fukayama (political scientist)
Written in 1989, around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Fukayama’s essay The End of History? suggested that democratic governments such as those in the United States and Europe represented the best form of government possible. Fukayama expected the rest of the world to slowly but surely change their forms of government into versions of these kinds of democracy.
