Guest Speaker Eltion Meka – World History
Under the supervision of Faculty Ms. Karoline
3 reflective papers
Guest Speaker: Dr. Eltion Meka – World History-ASC 203
Topic: Promoting Democratization after WW2: Where did we reach?
Date and Time: October 12, 2020 at 5.40 pm-6.45 pm ( UAE time).
Dr. Meka was invited to World History course to talk about how Europe and U.S promoted the age of democratization after WW2.
Student Reports:
Mohammad Khalifa Mohd Abdulla Yemai
Guest speaker
Our guest speaker Dr. Eltion Meka explained what Freedom House is, which is a US based think tank that specializes in matters of democracy and freedom and every year they value democracy around the world to see where the world is and what pollical institution is dominant.
Dr. Eltion Meka showd us a graph showing the years in which democracy started to promote it self financially in the world you can see the intervals from 90’s to 95 then it goes down and jumps again in 98 then in 03 it has an extreme rise till 2012. And another graph of the six subcategories from FO Democracy Progs., NED, Civil Society, Political Competition, Good Governance, and Rule of Law/HR.
Dr. Eltion Meka explains what the Democracy promotion are; the process by which an outer actor intervenes to establish democratic gov in a country or stat, this is like the article 1 of The International Dimension of Democratization Consent part of Who is promoting, How are they promoting, what are they promoting and What effect are they having are important aspects of Democratization Consent because it will have a ripple effect that can be good or bad later on in the following years.
Dr. Eltion Meka talked about models of democracy are being promoted and gave example of Consesnual and majoritarian; presidential and parliamentary. Dr. Eltion Meka mentioned this because when you promote democracy you have to keep in mind what type of democracy are you promoting and what model will be ideal for the society that you will promote democracy. You have homogenized society and heterogeneous society. In a heterogeneous society everyone wants power in government decision making and you need to be careful because it might make society or country worse than helping it.
Dr. Eltion Meka start to talk about why we should be scared about democracy is dropping because you will need leader to represent democracy and when Donald trump is elected president and not showing regards to democratic ideal, and other countries look up to US as the true democracy as mentioned in article 2 by Prof. Paul Cartledge as US and UK have different democracy and US is the most idealized version. When the global power fails to abide by democracy domestically it will send a wrong message to the world and democracy power struggles and drop favorability, which result in other country shift to other style of government.
Dr. Eltion Meka further explains during the class Question and Answer segment about Authoritarian regime and democracy. Dr. Eltion Meka further explained that in a democracy if the leadership is bad you can resolve it in a peaceful manner by reelection in the next term, while in an Authoritarian regime it will be in a non-peaceful manner through civil war or operation. Dr. Eltion Meka is clear in mentioning that he is not here to prescribe a form of government but to explain the history of and evolution of global politics.
Dr. Karoline asked in class about the future of promoting democracy and who will be the main promoter Dr. Eltion Meka gave an answer to the question saying that the leader of promotion is EU because they are the GCC of members stats and is clear who will join them and they need to be a democracy. Because of that EU is Democracy that has and shows influence in the world and will be the current democratic leader for promoting. US can still fulfill this roll but it depends on who is elected next month. If trump is re-elected the US as a promoter for democracy will be in the back seat.
171010001 Reflection — Asma Abbas Ali Haji-
Doctor Eltion Meka talked about the international promotion of democracy and the present status in the world with reference to the different empires. He further emphasized on the relevance of democracy in the present times with reference to the context of the EU. He deliberated the concept with the aid of PowerPoint presentations inculcating news articles, journal cutouts and informative content. Voting for selection of governing bodies and political parties are often considered as the changes demanded by the citizens that can be referred to as democracy of choice. Furthermore, the professor justified as to why leadership is crucial for democracy especially in recent times referring to the historical events such as the end of WWII. US and UK enforced democracy in Germany and Japan laying stress on the fact that democracy is known to prevail for ancient times.
The professor helped me understand how countries are rated on scores based on their extent of being democratic in the global scale (0-7) where 0 indicates a country having no democracy and 7 being highly democratic. Moreover, I learnt that democracy had been countered since 2005. I further comprehended that democracy is an individual’s choice and cannot be forced for adoption. I adore how well the professor clarified the fundamental concept of democracy and its actual essence along with highlighting its role in upgrading the society. However, given the vivid expertise that the professor has an expertise on the genre, I would be interested in learning more about the emergence of democracy with assistance of case studies of different countries.
I understood that democracy states the government by the people. In this process, the government in which the supreme power is provided to the people where a representative of an area is elected by citizens. Further, the process involves all the elected representatives choosing a head of the nation/region by electoral votes. So basically it can be comprehended that democracy helps to understand that people can make their path of progress by choosing their preferable representatives. If a representative failed to perform ideally, then citizens might be altered with a suitable alternative. Hence, this topic provides me with an effective knowledge about how citizens exercise power to directly elect their representatives which makes a country more powerful and progressive. Consequently, promotion of democracy required.
Freedom of political expression and speech of reporters is important through which voters are well informed about their representatives and government helping them cast their vote according to their own interest. It has been observed that most of the countries such as Syria and Yemen suffer from the dictatorship where citizens of those countries suffer a lot from their respective presidents and failed to get recognition globally due to their poor economy. Therefore, democracy becomes a significant aspect in the world where this power makes those representatives and the government more accountable.
191010001 Reflection – Mais Obaji
Dr. Meka introduced the term democracy and how it was promoted throughout the years. The presenter’s speech had a great impact on my knowledge of what happened in the world and especially after we studied the structure of different empires (Chinese, Americas, Byzantine, and Islamic) throughout the World History course. The speaker talked about the dramatic changes that occurred in 2008 and how people have different views of the term democracy where some see electing a person means that he/she is representing their interest which is known as changing the government. The other category thinks that democracy is to overthink the political system where you keep changing between authoritarian and democracy regime. It was great to know about the history of democracy and the role of US and EU in promoting democracy as he emphasized on the role of leadership in democracy promotion nowadays. He talked about the impact of forcing democracy and how people should act towards it. I knew that countries are ranked (0-7) based on their level of being democratic in the global measure where 7 represents a country of a higher democracy. It will be great to know that countries can be promoted when citizens elect their leaders to help the regime becomes more liable.
The professor was able to explain the essential perception of democracy and its authentic core beside illuminating its position in advancing the society. He explained the process of electing a representative to represent the country and there will be a leader who guides these representatives. We can understand that powerful individuals in any society can choose to develop and proceed in their countries as they appreciate the importance of promoting democracy. Dr. Meka discussed the positive and negative impact of governments having their citizens elect their leaders where people will work hard with the regime to overcome difficulties such as economic struggles. I would love to hear from the doctor about the development of democracy throughout the history, how can we as citizens help in its promotion, and how did it change governments to be able to rule the world with its power lately. I wanted to know also about the impact of implementing courses about the promotion of democracy in our educational systems and how it will help in emerging our countries.
