1. Can Democracy Protect Human
Freedoms?

2. Can Democracy Protect Human
Freedoms?
• To deal with the question, let’s define
– Democracy
– Human freedoms
• Do the two affect each other? If yes, how?
• Factors affecting the relationship between
democracy and human freedoms
• Further thoughts

3. What is democracy?
• What we have been talking for the past few
weeks…
1. A highly inclusive level of political participation in
selecting leaders and policies
2. Meaningful opposition/contestation
3. Civil liberties
• Electoral Democracy (1 + 2) or Liberal Democracy
(1 + 2 + 3)?
• Today, we take “Electoral Democracy”
– To separate measurement on level of political rights
and civil liberties and to see the relationship between

4. What are the basic Human Freedoms?
• Article 1. [The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the United Nations]
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity
and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brotherhood.
• The Declaration was the result of the
experience of the WWII.
• Earlier origin - an idea developed during
Enlightenment

5. Some examples from the declaration
• Right to life, liberty and security of person
• No slavery or servitude and free from subjection to torture or to
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
• Right to recognition everywhere as a person before law and entitled
to equal protection by the law without discrimination
• Right to free choices
• Right to freedom of movement and residence within the state; and
the freedom to emigrate and return
• Right to property
• Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
• Right to freedom of opinion and expression
• Right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
• Right to take part in the government
• Right to free education
• Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and
full development of his personality is possible.

6. From human freedoms to civil liberties
• Civil Liberties are a list of rights and freedoms
developed based on the UN Human Rights
Declaration
• Practical implementation of the human freedoms
ideals
• According to Bova, minimal package of civil
liberties
– Rights of association
– Opposition
– And free speech and expression

7. Democracy ≠ Civil Liberties
• Some democracies can be more “liberal” than
the others.
– even in democracies, human rights can be violated.
– E.g. in the U.K., slavery was allowed; in the U.S.,
homosexuality was prohibited.
• Liberty: a consequence or a precondition of
democracy?

8. Political rights and Civil liberties
• Political rights: measure the level of rights to
political participation and contestation
– Electoral Process
– Political Pluralism and Participation
– Functioning of Government
• Civil liberties: individual liberties including
Internet Freedom
– Freedom of Expression and Belief
– Association and Organizational Rights (e.g. freedom of
assembly)
– Rule of Law
– Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights

9. Political rights and Civil Liberties
Score differences
No difference
49%
1 point
difference
34%
2 point
difference
17%
No. of countries
Source: Freedom House 2012
Suggest a relationship between levels of Political Rights and Civil Liberties.

10. Political rights and Civil Liberties
Political rights and Civil Liberties Scores distribution
Count of Countries Civil Liberties
Political Rights 1 - Highest 2 3 4 5 6 7 - Lowest N/A Grand Total
1 - Highest 48 11 59
2 1 17 7 25
3 3 15 11 29
4 7 7 4 18
5 1 7 5 1 14
6 3 19 10 32
7 - Lowest 2 7 9 18
Data not available 10 10
Grand Total 49 31 30 28 30 18 9 10 205
Source: Freedom in the World 2012, Freedom House 2012

11. Democracy and Human Rights
• Electoral Democracies scored better on Average
• Ok, but why?

12. Possible Factors Affecting The
Relationship
• Cultural inheritance?
• Time and quality of the Democracy?
• The economic factor?
• Existence of electoral activities?
• Repression and Rebellion reactions?

13. Culture: Western or non-western?
• Factor 1:
– European or owing to European Colonization,
characterized by significant European settlement
• Factor 2:
– Whether a country has a majority of Western
Christians (only Catholics and Protestants) or
Jewish).

14. Democracy and Western Culture
West European,
European
settled, or Latin
American
countries
64%
East European
10%
Former colonies
or Britain, the US
or Australia
16%
Japan, South
Korea, Turkey,
Mongolia,
Namibia and
Senegal, hevay
influenced by US
10%
Source: 1993-1994 Freedom House ratings
Distribution of democratic countries 1993-1994

15. Culture: Western or non-western?
• Clear-cut Western Countries
– America, Canada, Australia, the UK, etc.
– Non-western European countries
• Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia
• Ambiguity of both the East European and Latin
American
– Penetration of Western Christianity

16. Democracy, Culture and Human Rights

17. Time and quality
• Time: stability of the democracy?
• Quality: functioning of democratic government
• Human Rights performances:
– 1st: Western Democracy, e.g. France, the U.S.
– 2nd: East-European or Latin American Democracies, e.g.
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland
– 3rd: Non-western Democracy, e.g. Japan, S. Korea
• Latin American Democracies vs. India
– India’s Human Rights scores is ~20 points lower than Latin
Americas’ average
– Time alone may not be the key

18. The Economic Factor
• There is a connection between economic
prosperity and human rights performance
• The connection works stronger in more
western democracies.
• According to Humana’s 1991 findings
GNP per capita Average Human Rights Score
Latin America Asia and Africa
< $1500 67.1 64.5
>= $1500 79.1 61.3

19. Democracy, Repression, Rebellion,
Personal Integrity Abuse
• Better democracy, less opportunity to use
repression, less personal integrity abuse; or at
least less fatal personal integrity abuse.
• Economic factor plays a role too.
– Better economy, less repression
– Better economic growth, rebellion are more
resourceful but the regime would play less repression
• Demographic factor:
– More densely populated, higher opportunity of state
terrorism, the higher chance of rebellion and higher
chance of repression.

20. Electoral Activities

21. Electoral Activities
• Lindberg suggested below reason why elections advance
democracy in Africa
– Citizens become voters
– Democratic “Lock-in” mechanisms
– Self-fulfilling prophecies
– Civic organizations
– New roles for the institutions
– The role of the media
 Promote civil rights and indirectly value human freedoms of individuals
• Even countries that at first glance may not seem to possess
the necessary preconditions for democratic rule may still
benefit from participatory, competitive, and legitimate
elections.

22. Summarizing…
• High level of respect for human rights and liberties is
most likely found in relatively prosperous Western
countries
– With a longstanding practice of what is called by Diamond
a electoral democratic government.
• Democracy can co-exist with human rights abuses
however with better check and balances, the severity
of abuses is still less than that in authoritarian regimes.
• Democratic government incorporates a minimal degree
of liberty, the level of respect for liberty beyond that
minimum can vary widely.

23. Further thoughts:
Implications on foreign policy
• Promotion of democracy can foster promotion of
civil liberties and expansion of human freedoms
• Can it be used as an excuse to fire military actions
towards other countries? If human freedoms are
what we concern, are military actions justified?
• E.g. the U. S.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/770/iraq-war-five-
year-anniversary
• Comparing China, Soviet Union and with the U.S.,
who fought more wars?

24. Further thoughts
Democracy = liberties?
• 19th century: European liberals resisted the
ideas of democracy
• Political equality and democracy bring with
them a natural tendency toward
governmental centralization and
governmental intrusion into spheres of
activities
• Servitude (奴役) & Anarchy (無政府狀態)
• Doubt: The principle: Majority rules, minority
protected  Populism?

25. Further thoughts:
Hong Kong
• Hong Kong
– Pre-1997: no universal suffrage, no election on
our Legco members; a colonial territory
– Post-1997: universal suffrage on certain seats of
Legco members; handed over to home-country
– Increase of democratic elements?
– Increase in political rights?
– Increase in human freedoms?

26. Political rights & civil liberties
Hong Kong
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
CL
PR

27. Further thoughts: Ukraine
• Ukraine is considered a democratic state.
(Freedom House 2000)
• In 2010, watchdog Reporters Without Borders
(RSF) said
"multiple press freedom violations" had been
recorded since Viktor Yanukovych's election as
head of state. RSF added that "serious
conflicts of interest are menacing Ukraine's
media pluralism".

28. References
• Bova, Russell (1997). “Democracy and Liberty: The Cultural
Connection”, Journal of Democracy, 112-126, Vol. 8, No. 1,
January.
• Freedom in the World 2012, Freedom House 2012
• Lee, James Ray (1997). “The Democratic Path to Peace”,
Journal of Democracy, 48-64, Vol. 8, No. 2, April 1997.
• Lindberg, Staffan I. (2006). “The Surprising Significance of
African Elections”, Journal of Democracy, 139-151, Vol. 7,
No. 1, January 2006.
• Methodology, Freedom House 2012,
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world-
2012/methodology
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml