PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Contemporary Global Concerns — I
Is democracy promotion in developing countries a feasible idea?
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 can democracy be exported? → the record is mixed → feasibility turns on method, not goal → feasible as facilitation from within, not coercion R2 democracy's universal appeal (Locke: safeguard of rights) → method decides feasibility → feasible only where change is organic
Body flow
case for promotion: Doyle's democratic peace (democracies more peaceful, esp. with each other; political culture + moral values + economic ties) → Sen vs Lee Kuan Yew: democracy democratises development → but imposition counter- productive: Locke's blind spot (authoritarian /tribal legacies) → “democracy at gunpoint” Iraq/Afghanistan → violence, weak governance, corruption, Taliban 2021 → “cultural imperialism” (Appadurai) — “illiberal democracy” (Zakaria): elections without institutions, unstable/hollow → Huntington's Third Wave:
Counter-view
support works only where conditions are conducive → Tunisia (2011 Arab Spring, civil society, internal commitment)
Conclusion routes
coercive external imposition (“democracy at gunpoint”) vs organic, internally- driven democratisation R1 democracy thrives when internal movements are supported + institutions built over time R2 feasible as facilitation of an organic, intrinsic process, not coercion
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
