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A Culture of Democracy
Democracy is based on the idea of free, thoughtful, and independent citizens who considers issues, makes decisions in cooperation with others, and hold themselves and their leaders accountable. For this idea of citizenship to be fully realized, an enabling environment – or a culture – must be woven into the very fabric of society.
QUESTIONS:
How successful has Bhutan been in creating a ‘culture of democracy’?
How far does it have to go?
What role should civil society play in deepening the culture of democracy?
Thank you, Manny.
Lips and wishes about flourishing democracy in our country doesn’t work. We dream but never wake up to take the path to it. In other sense, I am saying that the democratic culture is not furnished though it is being built. I am even doubtful if our country is ready to be furnished.
Anyway, of all, the Lip Culture of Democracy might be what is really prevalent today. The government is trying their best in the democratic way to reform the country, but that doesn’t mean that we have the sound Democratic Culture.
Even if the government is near proximity to practicing Democracy as a culture, it is only a smallest part of the nation, the citizens. Youths and other lower citizens know that our country is Constitutional Democratic Country but they haven’t got the essence of Democracy to pop out of dormancy and exercise the democratic rights and responsibilities.
Civil Society, as the naming itself resounds, has direct contact with the societies and to make them civil and democratic in their thoughts and action may be their role. People are mostly void or deprived of information or knowledge on democracy and their golden rights and responsibilities.
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LikeDislikeThe series of discussions on ‘culture of democracy in Bhutan’ organized by BCMD has been a fantastic initiative. It has been a wonderful platform for me and a very interesting development in our effort to creating that enabling environment, that quintessential factor, public space manifesting into a physical space which is very critical at this juncture in a society that is yet transitioning from a culture of engaging in sorts of debate under anonymity to a real person contributing in debates.
Culture evolves over time and it may still be too early to start comparing old democracies with Bhutan. We are only four years into the new governance set-up. We are not simply talking about institutional set-ups when we talk of a culture of democracy. I believe we have done most of that already. State actors continue to perform their functions (although many maybe dissatisfied). Media and Press continue to bring out important issues in public. We have CSOs mostly in the social support category at the moment, nevertheless doing their bit. Take for instance BCMD, it’s been trying to sensitize the Bhutanese citizenry on media. Its newsletter titled ‘Mi-khung’ meaning citizenry and does much to create awareness through local literature. Naturally the next step for us in Bhutan is behavioral change. Let me cite an example. I had through my blog declared my intent to initiate a ‘Right to Information law’ in Bhutan with the objective to address inefficiencies and corruption in the system. A comment goes to describe this right to information as ‘challenging the hand that feeds, clothes us,’ indicative of where we stand as a society. Most of us still believe that what we receive is a favour rather then a right for which we elect leaders and have state actors to dispense service to the citizenry. This shift is critical and fundamental to a flourishing healthy democracy. However, like evidenced by many well known body of scholarship, change in human behavior takes time. However it is in my opinion that we have come a long way in such a short time. Bhutan is probably one of the few examples of a transition to democracy peacefully in the world, this in itself is a unique and very significant indication of the desire for a democratic society at the highest level at a time when the institution of monarchy enjoys the full confidence of its people. Not many countries in the world, if any, can claim that.
My outlook is one of a positive nature as our society tries to slowly keep pace with fast changing dynamics all around. Much has been achieved in creating institutional arrangements, which in many countries in itself have proven a herculean task. Next in line is the behavioral change and it calls for utmost sensitivity because we do not want to allow any misinterpretation by that. Far too often we have heard people relate democracy to retaliatory voting, venting frustrations without trying to talk to anyone in authority and sometimes even acts indicating state of lawlessness. These are all very skewed summarization of what a democracy may look like when infact democracy is so much bigger. Having said that, move forward we must. We must continue making opportunities for citizens to understand and comprehend democracy. In the end, that understanding will prove to be the foundation of a culture of democracy in Bhutan to build on.
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