Since the end of the Cold War, Western policymakers have presented human rights, democracy and market economies as a package. The relations between markets and human rights are, however, complex, problematic and not well understood.
The relations between democracy and human rights are also problematic, because, although democracies generally respect human rights better than authoritarian regimes do, democracies can violate human rights, and the protection of human rights may require limitations on democracy.
In practice, the Western powers have interpreted 'democracy' to mean free and fair elections, and, desirable though these are, they are not only not sufficient conditions for the protection of human rights, but sometimes accompany, and perhaps even cause, the deterioration of human rights. In many recent cases these has been because elected governments have pursued market-based economic policies that have not only worsened the protection of economic and social rights for the most vulnerable sections of society (specially women), but also provoked increases in crime that have led to restrictions on civil and political rights.
We must also distinguish between democracy and democratization, the process of political change that has a problematic relation to human rights for somewhat different reasons. The transition from authoritarianism to democracy may be a change from imposed order to regulated conflict. Where there is little or no tradition of democratic politics, and also economic hardship and/or ethnic divisions, the restraints that democracy places on conflict may break down.
The results may resemble the human-rights catastrophes of Rwanda of Yugoslavia, in both of which countries the processes of democratization were involved in the ensuing human-rights tragedies.
What are the three things the Western policуmakers have presented to the world after the end of the Cold War?
Choose the correct one from the following:
