Opposition 1: Stability is caused not by democracy as an ideology, rather by practical implementations of it.

Opposition Post 1
Kah Khang
I would like to make an opposition to the statement that democracy creates stability in a society. The proposition has mentioned that democracy, as opposed to other ideologies, would satisfy most of the people’s needs by allowing people to vote and choose the leaders to form a government, thus resolving conflicts of interest. Democracy would also allow the people to have a larger say in their own country.

However, I would like to argue that stability is not caused by democracy as an ideology, but rather by practical implementations of it, under circumstances.

Democracy is about using democratic values and processes to achieve goals, which implies intellectual and political choice. However, this ideology of democracy, even when adhered to strictly, will still not be able to resolve the conflict, and might even aggravate it.

This is the case for Sri Lanka. When the British government ended its colonial rule in Sri Lanka, democracy was implemented in order to elect a government. However, the pro-Sinhalese party played discriminatory politics, and because of them being the majority in the country, the party eventually prevailed. What resulted was a series of discriminatory policies, aimed at crippling the Tamils, such as the Sinhala-only policy. From the example, it can be concluded that democracy, when implemented unfairly, may tend to overlook the interests of the minority, and therefore may not be able to bring stability.

Another case would be that of China.

After the Sino-Japanese and Sino-French war, China became nothing but remains of an empire fragmented and crushed under pressure from especially Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Russia. After Qing imperial rule had been overthrown, no powerful central authority was established for decades. It was not until when the Communist Party came to power in 1949, that China started to be reunited, under one rule. However, this came at a price. Under the communist regime, the government enforced one single way of living and thinking for the entire Chinese people.

This was extremely crucial to reunite China, and restore peace in the country. Under these circumstances, democracy would not work. This was because under the different mindsets and thinking of the people, democracy would not be implemented that efficiently as opposed to totalitarianism. They knew that they needed a stern hand to come down hard on the people, and to be able to establish policies that would serve to unite the people’s mindsets and serve as a common identity, which would serve as a foundation stone to build upon for stability in all areas, including social, political and economic stability in the country.

Therefore, stability in a society is not caused by democracy as an ideology, but rather by practical implementations of it.