Democracy In Non Western Countries

Ever since Sudan gained independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956, its political landscape has experienced seemingly endless sociopolitical and economic turmoil due to ethnic conflicts amongst the 570 different tribes with diverse sets of faiths, social backgrounds and cultures, and more so due to religious tensions and power politics between the dominant Arab-Islamic North and the repressed Christian South. The 1989 coup d’etat resulted in the successful overthrow of democratically elected Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, head of the Umma Party, and lead to the takeover of political Islam agenda established by Col. Omar al-Bashir’s National Islamic Front. The presidential elections since then have mostly been plagued by irregularities, and …show more content…
Democracy is an American and European idea that does not fit other cultures or civilizations and thus, is always imposed on other societies. Non-western countries, especially the Islamic regimes that have a different religious and cultural perspective and tolerance altogether discard the western outlook. Democracy can only ascend “organically” in a country and requires an extensive period of social, economic and cultural transition to fit into the “liberal democratic” scheme of things. However, in recent decades, especially after the decolonization period in the twentieth century, democracy has taken root in nations with different cultures and different levels of economic development. Countries that were previously colonized and installed a democratic form of government much after Western countries are in the process of moving from a rather authoritarian form of government to a more democratic form of government and thus, are bound to have internal conflicts between different brands of political factions in the country. Sudan, a “fragile” state of Africa has a shrewd dictator who is well-versed with how democratic evolutions take place and how to resist