Last semester I wrote a paper comparing Democratic Peace Theory and Civilizational Clash. I would post the paper but I wrote it in a single night the day before and the writing is horrible. I will, though, as some point be revisiting this paper for another class to try and flesh it out more. As such this will be more a food for thought diary with me asking your thoughts than it will be a full on data explosion.
Anyway, within this paper I attempted to see if a civilizational divide will bring about perceptional differences within levels of democratization between states. That is to say will the culture effect how democracy is perceived, or can democracy itself alleviate cultural differences. Within the paper I reference one study that tried to evaluate cultural perceptions and support for the use of force. The results were, to some respect, positive in that one of the trials showed that force was hesitated upon if the other state was perceived to be culturally similar. The study itself, and noted within, did not explicitly use democracy to split in and out groupings. It was though a basis for further study and a point where I tried to make inferences from past historical cases.
Continues after the divide...
The interesting points comes when looking at those comparing two historically rival states from differing cultures. Within the paper I compared conflict between Greece and Turkey, and India and Pakistan. During periods of conflict when one or both states had non-democratic governments. This was within both cases and it was an interesting point of thought.
There was, though, a converse. Covert action taken between states of differing cultural backgrounds when their democratic systems were seen to be faltering. This mostly comes from the US and the fear that once a state went red it never came back. While this perception is political in nature and not cultural, the political divide might provide a good relation point for any cultural divide. Current Western views on modernization and democratization of highly Western in nature. This might bring about a point where any experimental system of democracy not rooted in Western cultural tradition could be perceived as non-democratic. Any movement based on such root cultural traditions might pose an alarm bell within Western government sending the need to prop up the Western style system.
I bring this up as the process of modernization is bringing out instability politically for many states. Political participation is expanding in states that never had high levels of it as economic opportunities are opened up (or closed down) to more and more citizens. As we have seen during the Arab Spring it will force about a push for change within the traditional political orders currently established within the state. Some government go toward reform other try to stop it. But one thing is for sure, eventually the traditional political systems in place in those states will fall and something else will be built upon them.
So here comes the question. Do you think democracy helps alleviate cultural differences between states or can cultural differences magnify views on what constitutes democracy?
Furthermore, do you think these cultural perceptions might bring about situations where covert action will be taken to preserve the democracy based on relevant cultural traditions (i.e. Western Democracy vs say Asian Democracy)?