Promotion of Liberal Values by States - Essay Example

 Introduction: The 21st century has seen the increasing trend of spreading liberal values in the far and wide of the world as an important component of the foreign policies of most of the Liberal states specially United States. There is a mix attitude of thinkers and researchers towards the use of force in spreading the liberal values to most of the states of the world. In the discussion below we will support the stance that the use of power for spreading the liberal values is itself the negation of the basic doctrines of the liberal theory. The essay also presents the idea that elections in countries without liberal values create illiberal democracies. Further it also presents the idea that the spread of liberalism will not necessarily result in shape of complete peace and prosperity in the world. Discussion: In order to understand the prescribed role of the liberal states by the Liberalism theory it is important to understand the theory. “Liberalism is an ideology, philosophy, and political tradition that holds liberty as the primary political value. Broadly speaking, liberalism seeks a society characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on power, especially of government and religion, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a market economy that supports relatively free private enterprise, and a transparent system of government in which the rights of minorities are guaranteed. In modern society, liberals favor a liberal democracy with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law and an equal opportunity to succeed.” (Wikipedia, 2006) The essential characteristic of the liberal theory of the state is the doctrine of jurisdiction. The liberalism theory emphasizes on the limited area of power and authority for the state. Liberalism provides specified boundaries to the state beyond which the state cannot trespass. The principle of the limited power of state is the characteristic, which signifies the theory of Liberalism from Socialism in which the power of state is unlimited and Anarchists, according to whom the state does not have any significance. According to the neo socialist theory the most important factor is the economic efficiency rather than that of individual liberty and limited government. In order to undertake a discussion of the extent to which the use of power in the spreading the Liberal values is justified we will analyze the principles of Liberalism. The first and the foremost important principle of liberal theory are that the state is not superior to all the institutions. In fact state is also a social institution as other social institutions. All the institutions related to the specified field have relatively more power concerning the field as compare to other institutions. State has its own limitations and boundaries. It has to act in those boundaries. (Cooray) War has remained an issue of concern for most of the countries and nations. The formation of the international institutions such as League of Nations and the UN is the part of efforts of the nations towards establishing peace in the world. But still the notion of war is present in shape of the process of fighting terrorism and intervention to establish democracies. In case of the attack of U.S and its allies at Iraq and the refusal of the United States to follow the suggestion of United Nations to resolve the matter through peaceful talks, denies the first role of the superiority of the institutions on the state. United States used her economic dominance and military superiority in the world to make all the countries, including its enemies and allies to support the decision of war against Iraq through using force. “The second principle of the liberal theory of the state is that the state ought to respect the fault principle.” (Cooray) According to the fault principle the state cannot punish an individual or cause him any harm with out his fault and cannot reward the faulty behavior of a person. Like wise the moral and ethical behavior of a person cannot be criticized and punished in any way by the state. The use of force is definitely against the fault principle. In case of use of force in the name of wars against terror resulting in shape of killing of thousands of innocent people the sate itself depicts a faulty behavior and the rest of the Allies State are appreciating the behavior by eking in the process. The principle also states that the discrimination should not done by the state on the basis of race, religion and color. In all the states where force has been used to establish the process of democracy and liberal system, the condition of the people is evident to the whole world. People are not even getting the basic necessities of life. The infrastructure and the economic systems have been ruined leaving the states hundred years behind the current era rather than improving their situation before war. “The third principle of the liberal theory of the state is the supremacy of law and adherence to established, proper procedures.” (Cooray) According to the U.N charter all the member countries should follow the combined decision which should be accepted by majority but in case of attack on Iraq U.S did not bother to take care of the opposition of the decision of attacking Iraq. Secondly, every state and nation is independent to follow the theory in order to run the system of the state. No other country has the right to interfere in the process of Governance and state system. So the imposition of the liberal values through force cannot be justified. “The fourth principle of the liberal theory of the state is that the power of the state ought to be fragmented and distributed amongst many centers.” (Cooray) In a liberal state the power should not be designated to state wholly. But from the armed actions of United States it can be concluded that the aim of the United States is establish its control in all the strategically important parts of the world. It is often argued that it is the duty of the powerful state like United States to use its power to help the people of other countries in getting rid of the imperialism. (Lynn, pg. 98-107) But United States is doing so in order to secure the American democracy as stated by President Wilson and cited by Record “the security of the American democracy is dependent on the state of the rest of the world's democratization.” (Pg. 15-21) In fact the Liberal states like America is not spreading the values for the betterment of the people of the countries under imperialism or socialism but to achieve the American interests through establishing free markets as President Clinton declared in his December 1999 A National Security Strategy for a New Century, "The spread of democracy, human rights, and respect for the rule of law not only reflects American values, it also advances both our security and prosperity. Democratic governments are more likely to cooperate with each other against common threats, encourage free trade, promote sustainable economic development, uphold the rule of law, and protect the rights of their people. Hence, the trend toward democracy and free markets throughout the world advances American interests." (Clinton, pg. 04) Robert Kaplan in one of his article stated the fact that the process of economic development, maintaining peace and social stability can be adversely effected by holding democratic elections in many countries. According to Fareed Zakaria the elections in countries without liberal values create illiberal democracies, which pose grave threats to freedom. The situation is evident in Iraq where thousands of people are dying every day due to the in efficient Government and the refusal of the nation to accept the new Government. Most of the people favoring the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine, followed by Pentagon, assumes that the use of force is justified in the process of “restoring and establishing democracy, stopping genocide, and enforcing peace agreements on parties to foreign civil wars.” (Record) They also follow the assumption that these should not be counted as interests. But how it is possible to use genocide to stop another genocide. To impose war on other states to establish liberal system in these states. And as indicated above it is not necessary that the establishment of democracy can lead to peace and prosperity as can be witnessed in case of Iraq, where although the elections have been successfully undertaken but the main purposes of restoring peace prosperity and democracy have still not achieved. Conclusion: In the paper we indicated the fact that the use of power is the opposite of the liberalism theory. (1) The claim that the democratic peace is a myth; (2) it is not necessary that the process of spreading liberal ideas can eliminate the risk of war although it can reduce it; (3) Most of the states use force not to spread the liberal values but to achieve their national interest which is the most important characteristic of nationalism but of (4) democratic elections are of no use in the countries where democratic values are not practiced; The paper presented and tried to prove the critiques of so called efforts to promote democracy which are in fact aimed at acquiring strategic interests and goals. References Cooray, M., The Role Of Government, The Liberal Theory Of The State, The Australian Achievement, retrieved as on June 06, 06 from http://www.ourcivilisation.com/cooray/btof/chap162.htm Lynn-Jones, Sean M. "Why the United States Should Spread Democracy." Discussion Paper 98-07, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, March 1998. Record, J., A Note on Interests, Values, and the Use of Force, From Parameters, spring 2001, pp. 15-21. Shai Lavi, "The Use of Force Beyond the Liberal Imagination: Terror and Empire in Palestine, 1947", Vol. 7, Theoretical Inquiries in Law (Online Edition): No. 1, Article 9 (2005). http://www.bepress.com/til/default/vol7/iss1/art9 Wikipedia, (2006). Liberalism, Page last modified 11:53, 4 June 2006, retrieved as on June 06, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism#_note-0 William J. Clinton, A National Security Strategy for a New Century (Washington: The White House, December 1999), p. 4. Zakaria, F., The Rise of Illiberal Democracy, Foreign Affairs, November/ December 1997, retrieved as on June 06, 06 from http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19971101faessay3809/fareed-zakaria/the-rise-of-illiberal-democracy.html Read More