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The spread of democracy has by no means eradicated political repression or conflict. But it has greatly increased the number of people who enjoy at least some aspects of freedom. On the other hand, what enthusiasts several years ago were calling " the worldwide democratic revolution" has cooled considerably. Many states have suffered serious setbacks and stagnation. This has been most pronounced in the former Soviet Union, Africa and the Middle East. Yet several former Soviet republics have made genuine democratic progress since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, but in the remaining 15 republics, pluralism was stillborn or is losing ground. While the latest Russian presidential election was a milestone, political life in Russia is still partially democratic and not very stable. Even though the Baltic states---Ukraine and Moldovia-have established working democratic systems, elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, Belarus has quietly sunk into dictatorship. Similarly the Central Asian states-such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan- have fared no better---and many are at risk of becoming fundamentalist Muslim states.

In sub-Saharan Africa, many of the 30 countries that experienced political openings in the early part of the decade have gone seriously off course. Some have descended into civil conflict and in Rwanda and Burundi the violence has been horrifying with over one million Tutsis murdered in Rwanda alone. Coups have halted liberalization in Nigeria, Gambia and Niger. Elsewhere in Africa, entrenched strongmen have manipulated elections to reconsolidate their power. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is one glaring example of this trend.

Discussion Point: Can democratic governments control the spread of Islamist forces in many Third World countries---or can Islamist extremists only be controlled by military regimes as in Pakistan and Algeria, making democracy a luxury few nations can afford?

In the final analysis, the stall in democratization is serious but not fatal. While pessimists might claim that it demonstrates the fragility of democracy, optimists would claim that it is merely a temporary lull that does not undermine the longer-term global movement towards democracy. Nonetheless, we should make it clear to our students that the success of democracy lies in a broad set of preconditions: the level of affluence, experience with pluralism and the degree of Western social and political influence.

It is well known that electoral democracy does eventually have a positive effect on freedom. The 1998 Survey of Freedom by Freedom House noted the growing the respect for civil liberties in a number of electoral democracies. But the sad fact is that , despite the emergence of electoral democracy as the world's preferred form of government, major violations of human rights and civil liberties remain the norm in a majority of countries containing some three fifths of the world's population. However, as the globe becomes a smaller place due to rapid travel, communication and globalization, the world is beginning to notice human rights violations and beginning to react negatively towards them.

The notion of human rights builds upon the idea of a shared humanity. These rights are not derived from citizenship in any country, or membership of any nation, but is taken to be an entitlement of every human being. In this sense, the concept of human rights is a uniting idea .Yet the subject of human rights-particularly in its application to non-Western societies has ended up being disputed as the question is often asked whether non-Western societies should be encouraged and pressured to conform to "Western values of liberty and freedom".

In particular, Asian countries have not only disputed the relevance of universal human rights, they have taken this position in the name of "Asian values" as a contrast with Western values. They claim that in the system of Asian values, for example in the Confucian system, there is greater emphasis on order and discipline and less on rights and freedoms. Yet the truth is, according to scholar Amortya Sen, the Western values of freedom and liberty sometimes seen as an ancient Western inheritance, are not particularly ancient, nor exclusively Western in their origins. Many of these values have taken their full form only over the last few centuries. He goes on to say that,while we do find some anticipatory components in parts of the ancient Western traditions, there are often parallel anticipatory components in parts of non-Western traditions as well. For example, on the value of "tolerance", Plato and Confucius were on the same side.

Still, the demand for the protection of human rights---based on the idea that it is a basic human right and the entitlement of every human being---is growing louder and stronger.Today the United Nations is the most important focus of global human rights activity. The Charter of the United Nations touches on the subject in several places.More importantly, the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( 1948) calls for the recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family and states that is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. In addition there are the other two broad multilateral treaties: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ( 1966) and the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights (1966)

Many countries have agreed to all three of these pacts. Even China in 1998 agreed to sign the treaty on civil and political rights. Furthermore, there are 19 other UN sponsored covenants that address children's rights , genocide, racial discrimination, refugees, slavery stateless persons, women's rights and other human rights issues.

These agreements, and human rights in general , are monitored by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR). There are also a number of regional conventions and Intergovernmental Organizations that assist the UN. In addition there are some Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that are concerned with a broad range of human rights. The frequency and horror of the abuses they highlight are increasingly penetrating the international consciousness and stirring the world's conscience. Women's rights are just one of the subjects that have recently become the focus of international concern and action. The largest and most widely noted international conference on the status of women met in Beijing , China in 1995.

Is the Islamic requirement that women cover themselves in robes a violation of their rights or a form of religious expression. American Muslims recently printed T Shirts with the slogan "It's good in the hood"!! ( Wall Street Journal, Friday February 15th 2002)

Earlier, an international conference, the World Conference on Human Rights, was held in Vienna in June 1993.This was the largest international gathering in 25 years and rejected earlier attempts such as the Bangkok Declaration of April1993, put in place by Arab and Asian governments, and which asserted the cultural relativity of human rights, claiming that human rights should be considered in the context of national and regional particularities and various historical , cultural and religious backgrounds. In response, the Vienna Conference upheld the immutability of human rights, despite attempts to subordinate them to rational or cultural considerations. In addition, the UN General Assembly created the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights whose function is to report upon and publicize human rights abuses to the UN General Assembly. Even though the Commissioner lacks the means to force governments to change their behavior, the mandate given to him by the international community is to promote and protect "Civil, cultural , economic, political and social rights and to prevent "the continuation of human rights violations throughout the world."

In conclusion, significant progress has been made in increasing international support for addressing human rights abuses. What was once the domain of do-gooders has increasingly become the province of presidents and prime ministers.

The growing interdependence of the world's social, economic and cultural life is having an impact all around on us. Within the USA, the tangible evidence is in the shirts from Hong Kong, shoes from Italy, bananas from Honduras, beef from Argentina, coffee from Columbia and cars and television from Japan and Korea . Everywhere, people have come to rely on other countries and other people to supply their basic needs.

DISCUSSION POINT: Are you personally in favor of a more contentious principle of globalization, namely the free movement of people from one country to another? Or do you think mass migrations of people from Third World countries to more developed ones has the potential to undermine national identities?

Communications have been revolutionized with the mass use of personal computers, VCRs, commercial able and satellite TV, modems, e-mail.As other countries around the world-particularly LDCs ( or less developed countries)-acquire these technologies, intriguing questions are emerging: What effects will all this technology have on politics and culture at the global level?

** First, the new communications media have greatly expanded the means of information exchange between political elites. Elites can more effectively get information about world events through CNN, BBC and other broadcasting networks. Also sophisticated technologies have also vastly expanded the capacity of elites to monitor others both within and outside a country. It is fairly evident that this is an effective tool being used in our success in dealing with our war on terrorism.

** Secondly, the emergence of global networks controlled by a few multinational corporations who will likely shape the world of communications, might be a dominant trend in the future. It is predicted by political scientist Howard Frederick that within a few years "five to ten corporate giants will control the world's most important newspapers, magazines, books, radio and television, cinema and videocassettes." This concentration and globalization of communication sources could have profound effects, creating a shared global culture and furthering the integration of political and economic life.

**Third, citizens across most of the world have easy access to information about politics than ever before. For instance, 40% of total television broadcast hours in many countries is devoted to news programming ( eg. Argentina, Canada, India, Russia, Poland etc.) Liberal democracies also televise proceedings of their national legislature. Also , individuals now have access to the Internet and multimedia resources. Through digital libraries, web pages and CD-ROMS, individuals can research relevant political information. The question is, has access to information and greater diversity of sources increased the citizens' knowledge, participation and interest in the political world.? The answer to this question is not easy and the results are often mixed.

** Fourth, with the new revolution of technologies , it is difficult for governments to control the information available to its citizens . From radio to cross border TV to regional satellite transmissions to computer based information networks, national borders have been erased as barriers to the movement of information. When asked what caused the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, President Lech Walesa of Poland pointed to a television set and proclaimed " It all came from there"!

While some political regimes-particularly authoritarian ones-attempt to manipulate information as a means of control, this control is diluted when citizens have access to news broadcasts from other countries and when foreign media are persistently probing the situation within a country. Even an authoritarian regime has a reduced capacity to deceive its own population and to prevent outsiders from witnessing its repression and cruelty. Indeed, the news media has been a key factor in the recent wave of democratization by enhancing the citizens' ability to communicate with others within their society , increasing their awareness of the rights and privileges enjoyed in other countries , and emboldening them in the knowledge that the" whole world is watching" as they demand their political and social rights.

** Fifth, the new communications technologies can affect the political, social and cultural values of people residing in traditional societies. Already we are witnessing as some say, the "Americanizing of global culture" which some political scientists such as Benjamin Barber refer to as "McWorld". He contends that McWorld takes on the colors of the cultures it encounters for awhile: thus the pop music world embodied Reggae and Latino rhythms in the Los Angeles barrio, Big Macs are served with red wine in Paris and Mickey Mouse speaking French at Euro-Disney. But in the end, it is MTV, McDonald's and Disneyland that are American cultural icons influencing the cultures of other nations.

Barber goes on to say that "McWorld represents an American push into the future animated by onrushing economic, technological and ecological forces that demand integration and uniformity and that mesmerize people everywhere with fast music, fast computers and fast food pressing nations into one homogeneous global culture, one McWorld, tied together by communications, information , entertainment and commerce"

DISCUSSION POINT: Globalization, it was thought, would increase political and social convergence between countries. Given the events of Sept. 11th 2001 (which revealed the extent to which Islamic extremists are not only plotting the destroy the West but are working to install fundamentalist regimes worldwide) do you think convergence is the likely outcome of globalization? Or do you think the world will divide along religious lines in the 21st. century, with more and more Islamic regimes dedicated to keeping American and other western influences from contaminating their traditional cultures?

Despite McWorld's success there has been friction and resistance against Western values by some non-Western societies. For instance, the Iraqi Baath Party attempted to ban MTV. In India, Hindu fundamentalists called for banning Kentucky Fried Chicken. In Saudi Arabia , despite modernization, cinemas and discos are outlawed and men and women are separated in banks, schools and restaurants. Women still wear the veil and are forbidden to drive. Even though the Internet has arrived, the Saudis have pioneered ways of blocking access to everything from porn to politics. They have even gone to the extent of banning the Japanese game Pokemon after rumors spread that the name of one of the most popular characters Pikachu was code for "a wily Jew".



		Bringing Global Issues Into the Classroom SESSION FIVE: PAGE TWO

	Continued. The spread of democracy has by no means eradicated political repression or conflict. But it has greatly increased the number of people who enjoy at least some aspects of freedom. On the other hand, what enthusiasts several years ago were calling " the worldwide democratic revolution" has cooled considerably. Many states have suffered serious setbacks and stagnation. This has been most pronounced in the former Soviet Union, Africa and the Middle East. Yet several former Soviet republics have made genuine democratic progress since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, but in the remaining 15 republics, pluralism was stillborn or is losing ground. While the latest Russian presidential election was a milestone, political life in Russia is still partially democratic and not very stable. Even though the Baltic states---Ukraine and Moldovia-have established working democratic systems, elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, Belarus has quietly sunk into dictatorship. Similarly the Central Asian states-such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan- have fared no better---and many are at risk of becoming fundamentalist Muslim states. In sub-Saharan Africa, many of the 30 countries that experienced political openings in the early part of the decade have gone seriously off course. Some have descended into civil conflict and in Rwanda and Burundi the violence has been horrifying with over one million Tutsis murdered in Rwanda alone. Coups have halted liberalization in Nigeria, Gambia and Niger. Elsewhere in Africa, entrenched strongmen have manipulated elections to reconsolidate their power. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is one glaring example of this trend. Discussion Point: Can democratic governments control the spread of Islamist forces in many Third World countries---or can Islamist extremists only be controlled by military regimes as in Pakistan and Algeria, making democracy a luxury few nations can afford? REASONS FOR THE REVERSAL OF DEMOCRATIC FORCES. The positive developments regarding the expansion of democratization in non-western countries must be balanced against 3 negative factors: 1. These societies face major destabilizing forces-ethnic, religious or racial. 2. Elites in these societies do not have a genuine commitment to democratic practice. 3. Democratic regimes in developing countries often have limited political institutions and infrastructures. In the final analysis, the stall in democratization is serious but not fatal. While pessimists might claim that it demonstrates the fragility of democracy, optimists would claim that it is merely a temporary lull that does not undermine the longer-term global movement towards democracy. Nonetheless, we should make it clear to our students that the success of democracy lies in a broad set of preconditions: the level of affluence, experience with pluralism and the degree of Western social and political influence. HUMAN RIGHTS It is well known that electoral democracy does eventually have a positive effect on freedom. The 1998 Survey of Freedom by Freedom House noted the growing the respect for civil liberties in a number of electoral democracies. But the sad fact is that , despite the emergence of electoral democracy as the world's preferred form of government, major violations of human rights and civil liberties remain the norm in a majority of countries containing some three fifths of the world's population. However, as the globe becomes a smaller place due to rapid travel, communication and globalization, the world is beginning to notice human rights violations and beginning to react negatively towards them. CHECK IT OUT: Make a list of 3 instances in the newspapers in which human rights violations have been negatively noted. For example, the US treatment of Taliban and Al Qaida prisoners might be one. Developing the Concept of Human Rights. The notion of human rights builds upon the idea of a shared humanity. These rights are not derived from citizenship in any country, or membership of any nation, but is taken to be an entitlement of every human being. In this sense, the concept of human rights is a uniting idea .Yet the subject of human rights-particularly in its application to non-Western societies has ended up being disputed as the question is often asked whether non-Western societies should be encouraged and pressured to conform to "Western values of liberty and freedom". Discussion Point: Should Third World nations be pressed to adopt Western concepts of human rights? Or is this "cultural imperialism?" If they do not, and as the world's Third World populations expand (and as Western countries absorb immigrants from the Third World) is the Western concept of human rights in danger of extinction? In particular, Asian countries have not only disputed the relevance of universal human rights, they have taken this position in the name of "Asian values" as a contrast with Western values. They claim that in the system of Asian values, for example in the Confucian system, there is greater emphasis on order and discipline and less on rights and freedoms. Yet the truth is, according to scholar Amortya Sen, the Western values of freedom and liberty sometimes seen as an ancient Western inheritance, are not particularly ancient, nor exclusively Western in their origins. Many of these values have taken their full form only over the last few centuries. He goes on to say that,while we do find some anticipatory components in parts of the ancient Western traditions, there are often parallel anticipatory components in parts of non-Western traditions as well. For example, on the value of "tolerance", Plato and Confucius were on the same side. Still, the demand for the protection of human rights---based on the idea that it is a basic human right and the entitlement of every human being---is growing louder and stronger.Today the United Nations is the most important focus of global human rights activity. The Charter of the United Nations touches on the subject in several places.More importantly, the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( 1948) calls for the recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family and states that is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. In addition there are the other two broad multilateral treaties: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ( 1966) and the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights (1966) Many countries have agreed to all three of these pacts. Even China in 1998 agreed to sign the treaty on civil and political rights. Furthermore, there are 19 other UN sponsored covenants that address children's rights , genocide, racial discrimination, refugees, slavery stateless persons, women's rights and other human rights issues. Discussion Point: Should developed nations, like Australia, be mandated to accept refugees who enter the country illegally as did Afghan refugees in 2001-2002.? These agreements, and human rights in general , are monitored by the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR). There are also a number of regional conventions and Intergovernmental Organizations that assist the UN. In addition there are some Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that are concerned with a broad range of human rights. The frequency and horror of the abuses they highlight are increasingly penetrating the international consciousness and stirring the world's conscience. Women's rights are just one of the subjects that have recently become the focus of international concern and action. The largest and most widely noted international conference on the status of women met in Beijing , China in 1995. Discussion Point: Is female circumcision in Africa a violation of women's rights or a form of cultural and religious expression? Is the Islamic requirement that women cover themselves in robes a violation of their rights or a form of religious expression. American Muslims recently printed T Shirts with the slogan "It's good in the hood"!! ( Wall Street Journal, Friday February 15th 2002) Earlier, an international conference, the World Conference on Human Rights, was held in Vienna in June 1993.This was the largest international gathering in 25 years and rejected earlier attempts such as the Bangkok Declaration of April1993, put in place by Arab and Asian governments, and which asserted the cultural relativity of human rights, claiming that human rights should be considered in the context of national and regional particularities and various historical , cultural and religious backgrounds. In response, the Vienna Conference upheld the immutability of human rights, despite attempts to subordinate them to rational or cultural considerations. In addition, the UN General Assembly created the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights whose function is to report upon and publicize human rights abuses to the UN General Assembly. Even though the Commissioner lacks the means to force governments to change their behavior, the mandate given to him by the international community is to promote and protect "Civil, cultural , economic, political and social rights and to prevent "the continuation of human rights violations throughout the world." In conclusion, significant progress has been made in increasing international support for addressing human rights abuses. What was once the domain of do-gooders has increasingly become the province of presidents and prime ministers. THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL LIFE The growing interdependence of the world's social, economic and cultural life is having an impact all around on us. Within the USA, the tangible evidence is in the shirts from Hong Kong, shoes from Italy, bananas from Honduras, beef from Argentina, coffee from Columbia and cars and television from Japan and Korea . Everywhere, people have come to rely on other countries and other people to supply their basic needs. Thus, the globalization of the economy---which involves the free movement of goods, services and capital---is shrinking the planet. DISCUSSION POINT: Are you personally in favor of a more contentious principle of globalization, namely the free movement of people from one country to another? Or do you think mass migrations of people from Third World countries to more developed ones has the potential to undermine national identities? Communications have been revolutionized with the mass use of personal computers, VCRs, commercial able and satellite TV, modems, e-mail.As other countries around the world-particularly LDCs ( or less developed countries)-acquire these technologies, intriguing questions are emerging: What effects will all this technology have on politics and culture at the global level? First, the new communications media have greatly expanded the means of information exchange between political elites. Elites can more effectively get information about world events through CNN, BBC and other broadcasting networks. Also sophisticated technologies have also vastly expanded the capacity of elites to monitor others both within and outside a country. It is fairly evident that this is an effective tool being used in our success in dealing with our war on terrorism. Secondly, the emergence of global networks controlled by a few multinational corporations who will likely shape the world of communications, might be a dominant trend in the future. It is predicted by political scientist Howard Frederick that within a few years "five to ten corporate giants will control the world's most important newspapers, magazines, books, radio and television, cinema and videocassettes." This concentration and globalization of communication sources could have profound effects, creating a shared global culture and furthering the integration of political and economic life. Third, citizens across most of the world have easy access to information about politics than ever before. For instance, 40% of total television broadcast hours in many countries is devoted to news programming ( eg. Argentina, Canada, India, Russia, Poland etc.) Liberal democracies also televise proceedings of their national legislature. Also , individuals now have access to the Internet and multimedia resources. Through digital libraries, web pages and CD-ROMS, individuals can research relevant political information. The question is, has access to information and greater diversity of sources increased the citizens' knowledge, participation and interest in the political world.? The answer to this question is not easy and the results are often mixed. Fourth, with the new revolution of technologies , it is difficult for governments to control the information available to its citizens . From radio to cross border TV to regional satellite transmissions to computer based information networks, national borders have been erased as barriers to the movement of information. When asked what caused the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, President Lech Walesa of Poland pointed to a television set and proclaimed " It all came from there"! While some political regimes-particularly authoritarian ones-attempt to manipulate information as a means of control, this control is diluted when citizens have access to news broadcasts from other countries and when foreign media are persistently probing the situation within a country. Even an authoritarian regime has a reduced capacity to deceive its own population and to prevent outsiders from witnessing its repression and cruelty. Indeed, the news media has been a key factor in the recent wave of democratization by enhancing the citizens' ability to communicate with others within their society , increasing their awareness of the rights and privileges enjoyed in other countries , and emboldening them in the knowledge that the" whole world is watching" as they demand their political and social rights. ** Fifth, the new communications technologies can affect the political, social and cultural values of people residing in traditional societies. Already we are witnessing as some say, the "Americanizing of global culture" which some political scientists such as Benjamin Barber refer to as "McWorld". He contends that McWorld takes on the colors of the cultures it encounters for awhile: thus the pop music world embodied Reggae and Latino rhythms in the Los Angeles barrio, Big Macs are served with red wine in Paris and Mickey Mouse speaking French at Euro-Disney. But in the end, it is MTV, McDonald's and Disneyland that are American cultural icons influencing the cultures of other nations. Barber goes on to say that "McWorld represents an American push into the future animated by onrushing economic, technological and ecological forces that demand integration and uniformity and that mesmerize people everywhere with fast music, fast computers and fast food pressing nations into one homogeneous global culture, one McWorld, tied together by communications, information , entertainment and commerce" DISCUSSION POINT: Globalization, it was thought, would increase political and social convergence between countries. Given the events of Sept. 11th 2001 (which revealed the extent to which Islamic extremists are not only plotting the destroy the West but are working to install fundamentalist regimes worldwide) do you think convergence is the likely outcome of globalization? Or do you think the world will divide along religious lines in the 21st. century, with more and more Islamic regimes dedicated to keeping American and other western influences from contaminating their traditional cultures? Despite McWorld's success there has been friction and resistance against Western values by some non-Western societies. For instance, the Iraqi Baath Party attempted to ban MTV. In India, Hindu fundamentalists called for banning Kentucky Fried Chicken. In Saudi Arabia , despite modernization, cinemas and discos are outlawed and men and women are separated in banks, schools and restaurants. Women still wear the veil and are forbidden to drive. Even though the Internet has arrived, the Saudis have pioneered ways of blocking access to everything from porn to politics. They have even gone to the extent of banning the Japanese game Pokemon after rumors spread that the name of one of the most popular characters Pikachu was code for "a wily Jew". 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