By: Lt Col JS Sodhi (Retd), Editor, GSDN
In many fora that I am part of, an often-heard statement which one gets to discern whenever China’s rise is discussed, is that China is a communist nation or that China is an authoritarian country or that democracies progress slowly. These remarks became the pivot of penning this article to discuss that do democratic nations progress swiftly? Four nations have been studied in this article. China which is a single-party communist nation and Finland, Germany and Japan which have multi-party-political system.
China
In 1950, just a year after the Chinese Civil War had ended, the per capita GDP of China was just US$ 614 in current international dollars (adjusted for purchasing power parity). The same year USA had a per capita GDP of US$ 1974 and that of USSR the other superpower existing that time, had per capita GDP of US$ 1218.
However, China focussed on education as the literacy rate in China in 1949 was just between 20-40%. The communist party on taking over power, made education as one of its foremost priorities and through both formal schooling and literacy programmes was able to achieve school enrolment getting tripled, secondary school enrolment increasing by a factor of 8.5 and college enrolment quadrupling in the first sixteen years.
Though in the initial three decades of modern China, man-made disasters like The Great Leap Forward, The Great Famine and Cultural Revolution happened, but the focus of China from modern education never dithered. After the US President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in February 1972 which subsequently led to the establishment of the diplomatic relations between USA and China on January 01, 1979, China slowly started became a manufacturing hub as USA realising the vast pool of skilled and educated labour available in China started outsourcing manufacturing to China.
In 2007, when China became the world’s third largest economy, the world realised that not only had China become the global manufacturing hub but was also now a reckonable military power. Sensing the trouble that China was soon to pose to USA militarily the US President Barack Obama announced the Pivot to Asia policy on December 21, 2011 in which bulk of the American troops stationed in the Middle East were moved to the Indo-Pacific region. China had arrived as a superpower when in 2014 it declared that it was ready to fight any nation in all the six domains of modern warfare – land, sea, air, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum and space.
In just 65 years, China had risen.
China has a one-party-political system which has the Chinese Communist Party in total control of governance and military.
Finland
Finland declared independence from Russia on December 06, 1917. Finland had been part of Sweden till 1809 and then it became part of Russia till it became independent in 1917. That year, Finland had a weak economy with poor living conditions and its agrarian economy with poor climatic conditions was not conducive for efficient grain growing. However, the nation underwent rapid industrialisation following the World War II by developing heavy industry and establishing a Nordic-style welfare state.
Crippled by World War II by loss of one-tenth of its territory and manufacturing facilities totally destroyed by the Nazis, Finland became part of the Western European trade-liberalisation movement by joining the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Bretton Woods agreement in 1948 and two years later in 1950 joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Subsequently, tariffs were eased and imports from market economies liberated from 1957. Investments climbed to rapid levels and GDP growth was 4.9% during the period 1950-73.
The agricultural policy introduced in 1950 which encompassed favourable loans and availability of agrarian resources soon led to over-production in several product groups and further to government-subsidized dumping on the international markets. Pension plans were introduced in 1962 and public health-care system was established in 1970.
Finland has a parliamentary republic system which has a President (head of state) and Prime Minister (head of government). Finland has a multi-party-political system with important political parties being the National Coalition Party, Finns Party, Social Democratic Party and the Centre Party.
By 1979, Finland was heavily modernised and was classified as a developed nation. In just 62 years, Finland had transformed.
Germany
After the defeat in World War II on May 08, 1945 and splitting in two nations, Germany found itself divided into West Germany and East Germany. The manufacturing industries had been totally destroyed by the Allied bombings which were carried out with great precision from late-1944 onwards as the Nazi Army under Adolf Hitler starting facing severe setbacks on one front after the other. Agriculture too was badly hit and the German economy collapsed in 1945 which is known as Stunde Null, a term in German languagemeaning “Zero Hour”.
Konrad Adenauer who became the first Chancellor of West Germany on September 15, 1949 and his Minister of Economics, Ludwig Erhard undertook rapid reconstruction and resurrection of the West German economy, which later came to be known as Wirtschaftswunder, the German term meaning “economic miracle”.
Starting with the Currency Reform which replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark as the legal tender and cutting taxes sharply from 85% to 18% on moderate incomes, price controls were also abolished. As a result, food which was in severe shortage, started becoming available easily. Capital stock was rebuilt and economic output started increasing.
West Germany had to pay the victorious Allied nations US$ 2.4 billion per year, as the cost of the occupation as part of the war reparations. The last of the repayment was made in June 1971.
Notwithstanding, the huge amount involved in war reparations, West Germany concentrated on skilling its workers and soon these skilled workers were in great global demand, sending back the coveted foreign exchange to West Germany.
West Germany had a federal parliamentary democracy with the President (head of state) and the Chancellor (head of government). The constitution created a system with separate executive, legislative and judicial branches. West Germany had a multi-party-political system with the prominent political parties being the Christian Democratic Union, the Social Democratic Party, the Free Democratic Party and the Greens.
The present-day Germany too has the same political system as was prevalent in West Germany.
In 1989, West Germany became a developed nation and within a year on October 03, 1990 both West Germany and East Germany reunified.
Thus, in just a short span of 44 years, West Germany not only became a developed nation resurrecting itself from total destruction post-World War II but also this financial power reunified the nation in only 45 years after being divided.
Japan
After the defeat in World War II, all manufacturing industries in Japan were destroyed by the Allied forces and agriculture and all the scientific institutions were so devastated that Japan started facing famine. The Japanese government was in deep debt and coupled with hyperinflation, the Japanese were in dire straits.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan undaunted by the severe crisis facing the island nation, started economic reforms and the first such measure was the Inclined Production Mode which focussed on production of raw materials. To simulate growth, women were encouraged to work.
Between 1957 and 1973, Japan saw an annualised growth of around 10%. Hayato Ikeda, the Prime Minister of Japan from 1960-64, introduced the Income Doubling Plan which aimed to double the size of Japan’s economy in ten years.
In 1971, Japan became a developed nation. In just 26 years after total destruction in 1945 which included two nuclear attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which scarred the Japanese psyche, Japan had resurrected itself in an economic miracle that came to be known as Kodo Keizai Seicho in Japan.
Japan has a parliamentary constitutional monarch political system wherein the Emperor is the symbolic head of state and the Prime Minister heads the government. Power is separated into the legislative, executive and judicial branches. Japan has a multi-party-political system and the prominent political parties are the Liberal Democratic Party, Constitutional Democratic Party, Japan Innovation Party and the Democratic Party for the People.
Lessons learnt from the rise of successful democracies
The rise of the three nations having multi-party-political system democracies discussed above in the article clearly breaks the myth that multi-party-political system nations don’t become developed in a short time duration. It also breaks another myth that independent judiciary is an impediment in a nation’s progress as a developed nation.
For those who want to work, there are no excuses. For those who want to see their nation as a developed nation there are no excuses. Excuses only come into play only when personal interests matters more than a nation’s progress. To blame the dead is the easiest. To answer question’s about one’s performance is the toughest.
Correct policies and right intent propel a nation into the developed category. Blame-game and repeatedly playing-up the past doesn’t and neither does whining and crying whenever anything goes wrong. Accountability and responsibility should be of the highest order if a nation sees itself as a developed one in few decades.
Mao Zedong created blunders in the initial few decades of China after the civil war ended in 1949, be it in form of the Great Leap Forward, Great Famine or the Cultural Revolution. But he isn’t talked about in China for these actions.
Genghis Khan of Mongolia invaded China in 1205 and is regarded as one of the most barbaric invaders ever. But he isn’t remembered in China on a daily basis.
West Germany did not talk of the ills of Adolf Hitler nor did Japan blame its rulers for the devastation caused due to the entry in World War II. And, neither did Finland keep on criticising Sweden and Russia, the nations that Finland was a part of till 1917.
Learn from the past but don’t repeatedly and regularly play-up the past. As for a person, a nation can only walk fast when looking forward and never backward.
A common lesson that emerges from the progress of China, Finland, Germany and Japan is that all these nations have kept religion away from politics. While in China, religion is a private affair within the four walls, in Finland, Germany and Japan religion has been kept totally away from politics and governance, though publicly one can be religious.
Swami Vivekananda, the famous Indian philosopher and religious teacher, had remarked “A country can never become developed if it’s youth are trapped in religion and caste”. Pakistan and Afghanistan can never become developed nations as both the nations are deeply mired with religion and feudal systems playing the pivotal role in Pakistani & Afghani politics and governance.
As a human can never have the ideal personal life for good professional growth, similarly no nation can ever have the ideal conditions to become developed. Those humans and nations that succeed do so despite having to encounter challenges.
A famous advertisement of yesteryears goes “The world steps aside, for the man who knows where he is walking”. Similarly, the world looks with awe and respect for the nation on the right track and pace to become a developed nation.
Rhetoric doesn’t have a long shelf life; realism does and creates permanency.
The famous Chinese proverb goes “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now”, has a deep meaning for nations aspiring to be developed within a specific time frame.
About the Author
Lt Col JS Sodhi (Retd) is the Founder-Editor, Global Strategic & Defence News and has authored the book “China’s War Clouds: The Great Chinese Checkmate”. He tweets at @JassiSodhi24.
