pn550. Democracy and Capitalism, the Societal Context: Fiji and ...

The previous post https://crosbiew.blogspot.com/2020/09/threats-to-democracy-two-ted-talks.html presented two views on current threats to democracy. Useful and thoughtful as they were, we need to go a step further because neither really examined the fundamental nature of the society —the context— within which democracy exists. 

Scott MacWilliam's*  paper examines the historical, global and current political and economic context of democracy as it applies to Fiji.   http://dpa.bellschool.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/2019-09/dpa_dp_20193_macwilliam_.pdf .

"This Discussion Paper inserts the important international arguments about the relationship between democracy and capitalism into considerations of the search for democracy in Fiji. In doing so, the conclusion is reached that liberal democracy, as ‘thin’ as it has been in Fiji (MacWilliam 2001), is unlikely to be extended when faced with the changes capitalism is undergoing globally. The militarisation of politics in Fiji is a powerful local expression of the challenges liberal democracy faces."

It is a long paper. If you are in a hurry I'd skim the first part, and pay particular attention to pages 11 - 14.  When you come back later to read the whole paper more carefully, and as the NZ election approaches, you may also care to reflect on  the  limitations capitalism —our societal context— makes "deep" change in NZ  difficult.

-- ACW  

 

* Scott MacWilliam, Department of Pacific AffairsCoral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, ANU College of Asia and the PacificThe Australian National University

 

Note. The paper is the third of a trilogy written after the November 2018 election in Fiji. The first, In Brief 2018/28, considered the consequences of how reporting the results using competing media outlets affected popular understandings of the election. The second, Discussion Paper 2019/2, examined the continuing importance of land for elections, even as the conditions under which the indigenous population, the majority Taukei, live are commercialised and urbanised. Finally, this essay locates the search for democracy in Fiji, which is expressed in domestic and international objections to existing political circumstances