DEMOCRACY: ITS PRINCIPLES AND ACHIEVEMENT
DEMOCRACY: ITS PRINCIPLES AND ACHIEVEMENT
DEMOCRACY: ITS PRINCIPLES AND ACHIEVEMENT
Publication prepared and edited by the Inter-Parliamentary Union Texts contributed by:
Cherif Bassiouni (General Rapporteur), David Beetham, Justice M. Fathima Beevi (Ms.), Abd-El Kader Boye, Awad El Mor, Hieronim Kubiak, Victor Massuh, Cyril Ramaphosa, Juwono Sudarsono, Alain Touraine, Luis Villoro
Inter-Parliamentary Union Geneva 1998
? Inter-Parliamentary Union 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be a way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar
condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.
ISBN 92-9142-036-0 Published by
THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION P.O.Box 438
1211 Geneva 19 Switzerland
Layout, printing and binding by ATAR, Geneva, Switzerland Cover design by Aloys Robellaz, Les Studios Lolos, Carouge, Switzerland
Table of Contents
FOREWORD
Pierre Cornillon, Secretary General, Inter-Parliamentary Union
I
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON DEMOCRACY
Adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Council at its 161st session
(Cairo, 16 September 1997)
Ill
TOWARD A UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON THE BASIC PRINCIPLES
OF DEMOCRACY: FROM PRINCIPLES TO REALIZATION
Professor Cherif Bassiouni, General Rapporteur
1
DEMOCRACY: KEY PRINCIPLES, INSTITUTIONS AND PROBLEMS
Professor David Beetham
21
THE JUDICIARY IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE: SOME
INSIGHTS FROM THE INDIAN EXPERIENCE
Ms. Justice M. Fathima Beevi
31
SOME IMPORTANT PROBLEMS AND ASPECTS OF DEMOCRACY
IN THE CONTEXT OF THE BLACK AFRICAN STATES
Professor Abd-El Kader Boye
37
TOWARDS A UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON DEMOCRACY
Dr. Awad EI Mor
47
DEMOCRACY AND THE INDIVIDUAL WILL
Professor Hieronim Kubiak
57
DEMOCRACY: A DELICATE BALANCE AND UNIVERSALITY
Professor Victor Massuh
67
THE MAIN ELEMENTS OF DEMOCRACY:
A SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa
73
DEMOCRACY-BUILDING IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Professor Juwono Sudarsono
81
DEMOCRACY: ITS NECESSARY CONDITIONS, ITS ENEMIES AND
ITS OPPORTUNITIES
Professor Alain Touraine
87
WHICH DEMOCRACY?
Professor Luis Villoro
95
Foreword
The word democracy is one of the most used terms of the political vocabulary. This vital concept, through its transcultural dimension and because it touches the very fundamentals of the life of human beings in society, has given rise to much written comment and reflection; nevertheless, until now there has not been any text adopted at the world-wide level by politicians which defined its parameters or established its scope. This concept was probably in some way frozen by the opposition between plain or "formal" democracy and "popular" democracy which was current until recently in world-wide multilateral circles. These times are past; democracy - now unqualified - seems to be the subject of broad consensus and its promotion is high on the agenda of international bodies.
On the initiative of Dr. Ahmed Fathy Sorour, then President of its Council, the Inter-Parliamentary Union decided in 1995 to embark on a Universal Declaration on Democracy in order to advance international standards and contribute to the process of democratisation under way in the world.
This project followed naturally on the earlier work of the Union which had recently published several studies on the conduct of elections and political activities - a key element of the exercise of democracy - and had adopted in Paris in 1994 a Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections. It was nevertheless fairly audacious for the Union, a world-wide political organisation, to embark on this work and a serious and prudent approach was therefore taken so that the wager could be won.
As a first step, the Union wished to gather written opinions and thoughts from personalities representative of the different geopolitical currents in order to have a solid basis before starting to frame a preliminary draft. Twelve leading figures and experts kindly took up the Union's invitation to present in writing and after consultation among themselves their views on the principles and achievements of democracy.
At the outset, the project captured the interest of UNESCO whose DirectorGeneral wished his Organisation also to be involved. Accordingly, the Expert Group members held a meeting at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 6 and 7 December 1996 in order to co-ordinate their contributions. This Group included: Professor Cherif Bassiouni, Professor of Law, President, International Human Rights Law Institute, DePaul University, Chicago (United States of America), President, International Association of Penal Law; President, International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, who had agreed to act as General Rapporteur; Professor David Beetham, Director of the Centre for Democratisation Studies of the University of Leeds (United Kingdom); Ms. Justice M. FathimaBeevi, Governor of Tamil Nadu State, former Supreme Court Judge, Madras (India); Professor Abd-El Kader Boye, Faculty of Law of the University of Dakar (Senegal); Dr. Awad El Mor, Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Cairo (Egypt); Professor Steven Hanser, former
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