UNDP
United Nations
Development Programme
Committee: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Topic A: Evaluating the rise of hybrid regimes in developing regions Written by: Natalia Montero and Santiago Rodríguez
I. Committee Background
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was established by the General Assembly as an official committee of the United Nations (UN) on November 22nd, 1965. The UNDP was formed after the United Nations Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance, which was established in 1949, absorbed the United Nations Special Fund. Since the UNDP forms part of two of the 6 major UN organs, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and the General Assembly (GA), it is, therefore, located in the UN Headquarters in New York City. The UNDP’s purpose is to provide developing communities with vital assistance for a bright and promising future for both the population and the country’s status. This Programme has been operating in over 170 countries since the year it was established. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an array of goals set forth by the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, form a large part of the UNDP’s mission and have been guiding it since January 2016, when they first came into action. The three main ideas that the UNDP focuses on in order to achieve its mission are sustainable development,
democratic governance, and peacebuilding, as well as climate and disaster resilience (FAQs, UNDP, 2019). The current administrator of this committee is Achim Steiner; he was elected on April 19th, 2017, and is serving a four-year term (Executive Board, UNDP, 2017). Over the past decades, the United Nations Development Programme has gained several triumphs such as aiding one billion people out of poverty, lowering the children mortality rate and cutting down the amount of children who did not have access to a proper education in half, with the installation of the Millennium Development Goals, prior to the SDGs (The Borgen Project, 2017). Finally, the UNDP’s last session discussed very imperative concerns around the globe, such as the following issues: the fourth industrial revolution, soaring inequality, persistent poverty, climate change, and conflict, fragility and displacement (FAQs, UNDP, 2019).
II. Topic Information
A) History of the Topic
A hybrid regime, also known as an illiberal democracy or transitional government, is a combination, hence the name hybrid, of both democratic and autocratic traits (Bozóki, Public Seminar, 2017). This occurs once a government behaves as a democracy and implements elections, nonetheless, the same political party wins every election,
without the people’s consent. A hybrid regime is created when the region in question tries to transition from a certain type of government, such as an autocracy, to a democratic government but fails to do so. A broad wave of democratization took over the world during the 1980s and the 1990s as it reached Latin America, Eastern Europe, subsequently in some sections of Africa and Asia as well. This significant change was originated in Portugal and Spain. The “Third Wave” of democratization managed to change the previous 41 democracies out of the total 150 states in 1974 to three-fifths, or 123 of 192, of the existing states in 2006 (Rakner, Menocal and Fritz, ODI, 2007).
Nevertheless, only a small and limited amount of countries was able to fully experience the change. Meanwhile, the majority of these countries became stuck in this transition, thus creating a hybrid regime.
Hybrid regimes can be mostly found in developing countries due to the fact that these countries do not possess the resources needed for such a transition. A developing region is a country or state where the average income it produces is much lower than other industrial nations, and it mostly exports agricultural goods. Developing regions can be found all around the world, but the greatest concentration of these states can be found in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America (Bozóki, Public Seminar, 2017). Some examples of nations with hybrid regimes are Iraq, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Venezuela.
Tanzania’s political past is, to say the least, impeccable and it has been shown to be
mostly democratic after being ruled by four different presidents since the country’s independence. However, Tanzania has once deemed the country with the most active and the largest hybrid regime out of the 44 countries with a similar governmental ideology in Sub-Saharan Africa. As of 2017, Africa only has one fully democratic country, Mauritius. Furthermore, an estimated seven countries are living under a hybrid regime, simultaneously other seven countries are being governed by a flawed democracy.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that less than half of the European Union Member States are fully democratic (Matamoros, EuroNews, 2018). Regardless of the numerous hybrid regimes implemented in developing countries, developed nations can also experience and suffer from this political phenomenon.
These regimes can be severely disadvantageous against a country’s own citizens, for instance, the government can portray forms of oppression by carrying out acts of violence with citizens as targets due to their political beliefs. For example, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and author, was murdered in Saudi Arabia’s consulate located in Istanbul in October 2nd, 2018, due to his bold opinion regarding the authoritarian hybrid regime currently in place in Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi often wrote about the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, the rise of Osama Bin Laden, as well as hateful and critical views regarding his country’s government. While the journalist’s death is still being investigated, Turkish officials have stated that he was brutally murdered by Saudi
agents with direct commands from some of the highest levels of the Saudi government (BBC News, 2018). Violence and repression have been shown to be quite common in countries with a hybrid regime. In fact, there seems to be a strong link between a hybrid regime and restricted press. There have been multiple examples of Russian critics being killed or disappearing in mysterious ways. This is most notably shown in the killing of Denis Voronenkov, a high critic of Putin that when he tried to leave the country, he was killed in Ukraine in 2016 (Filipov, The Washington Post, 2017).
Currently, there are numerous types of active hybrid regimes all over the world such as the electoral authoritarianism and the defective democracy. In order to appropriately classify and identify these regimes, certain characteristics must be taken into consideration. Electoral authoritarianism is distinguished for imposing elections on its population, nonetheless modifying the results. This is able to give the citizens a sense of democracy, meanwhile, their demands and opinions are not taken into consideration by the governing party. Electoral authoritarianism is also able to simulate a sense of multiparty elections when in reality, the very same political party invariably wins. An example of this type of government may be the Russian Federation, which has been led by the same president for over 18 years; Vladimir Putin (Simmons, Los Angeles Times, 2018). Algeria, as well as the Russian Federation, has faced numerous challenges against its democracy in the past. As a nation governed by an electoral authoritarianism
government, Algeria’s government has used diverse electoral illusions such as the manipulation of survey results, disqualification of opposing party candidates, and administrative and financial delays (Volpi, MEI, 2014). Recognized as another kind of hybrid regime, a defective democracy occurs when a government fails to stay loyal to the characteristics of a true and strict democracy. A defective democracy has several different classes or categories. These categories include exclusive democracy, an illiberal democracy, delegative democracy, and an enclave democracy. All of these categories can be distinguished by certain characteristics ranging from interventions in judicial independence to the existence of veto powers within a country’s government and the exclusion from elections. However, all of these types of defective democracies have one thing in common, they are all deemed as hybrid regimes (Bertelsmann Foundation, 2018).
In the last two decades, there has been a notable rise in hybrid regimes all around the globe. After the fall of the Soviet Union, hybrid regimes have become highly more prolific around the world, since a multitude of them became hybrid regimes because they were former Soviet states such as: Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan (Democracy Index, 2017). Most of these states have become hybrid regimes due to that they have been independent for a short time, and lacked the political stability to become a democracy. In fact, a lot of hybrid regimes are situated in the Eurasian area and have a
hefty amount of international relations with Russia. Furthermore, the United Socialist Soviet Republic’s downfall may have caused political instability in the Eurasian region (Bozóki, Public Seminar, 2017). Some of these countries include: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. There is also a notable link between decolonization and hybrid regimes in Africa. Not including Botswana and South Africa, almost all countries in Africa are considered a hybrid or authoritarian regime (Democracy Index, 2017). This can be highly attributed to the detail that many of these states have been neglected by the international community, and many of these states have only been independent for 50 years. The appearance of hybrid regimes in Africa was considerably quick since as soon as they were independent and tried to transition to democracy, these countries were taken advantage of by an authoritarian “President” (GIGA, 2013).
B) Current Issues
Egypt: The transition from an absolute totalitarianism government to liberal democracy began in Egypt during 2005. This was categorized as a big change for the Egyptian people, given the fact that they were able to receive measures of civil liberties such as freedom of speech, criticizing of the government, and a broader selection of political aspects in media (Al-Anani, Brookings, 2018). The opening of new liberty related
opportunities took place in 2008. The yearly Democracy Index classified Egypt as an authoritarian regime. Nonetheless, Egypt’s government is also recognized as having small, yet noticeable democratic traits, thus making it a hybrid regime. During a brief period of time in 2012, Egypt was considered as a hybrid regime, reported the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index. Nowadays, Egypt has returned to its authoritarian regime. The Democracy Index has reported that Egypt achieved an overall score of 3.36, ranking as the 10th government in its region (Democracy Index, 2017).
Iran: Iran has had a very long period of instability after the 1953 coup d'état. This instability has turned this country into a hybrid regime. After the Shah's exile in 1980, Iran has been quickly becoming more conservative and extreme regarding its government (Iran, BBC News, 2018). Around 2005, Iran refused for International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect its shutdown missile programs, possibly increasing suspicion about Iran creating nuclear weapons. Iran has also been notable for its restraining of a free press. In 2003, a woman called Zahra Kazemi was taking pictures of a prison protest in Iran, when Iranian officials kidnapped her, raped her, and killed her. This murder has been left without a trial because Iran is trying to keep it discrete (CCIJ, 2019). In conclusion, Iran is an unstable country with an authoritarian/hybrid regime.
Pakistan: The country of Pakistan began its transition from an autocracy government to a
fully democratic regime in 2013. Nonetheless, Pakistan has slowly drifted into an authoritarian form of government. The Pakistani government has continued to repress its citizens and prohibit their civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and their right to state their own opinion, especially about the government. The Pakistani government has been no stranger to violent attacks with the purpose of oppressing its citizens. July 17th, 2014, the government ordered a massacre at the headquarters of Tehrik e-Minhaaj ul Quran, also known as TMQ, a local news source, due to the plans the company’s workers had to organize an anti-government movement. The massacre killed more than a dozen activists while wounding numerous others. This has not been the only occasion where the citizen’s rights were violated. Several other attacks, a number of them on a smaller scale, have taken place through the years in Pakistan. Adding onto the civil liberty issue, the military in Pakistan has been classified as problematic. Several coup d'état have risen throughout the years with the purpose of overthrowing civilian governments (Shahzad, The Nation, 2016).
South Africa: South Africa’s current government has faced numerous scandals, including several regarding corruption and patronage during the past decade (Gossel, The Conversation, 2016). One of these scandals being the Gupta scandal in 2018. The Gupta family was suspected to have been using political and business power through the former South African president, Jacob Zuma. This suspicions became more noticeable
after the rapid fall of shares just as soon as Jacob Zuma left office (Cotterill, Financial Times, 2018). South Africa does have some redeemable qualities that not every other nation has. It is one of the few Sub-Saharan nations that managed to transition from a colony to a democracy without any restraints. This may be due to the fact that the United Kingdom provided stability by its presence during this previously mentioned transition.
South Africa is also ranked as the 40th most democratic country out of 167 according to the Democracy Index (Democracy Index, 2017).
United States: The United States is ranked as a flawed democracy according to the Democracy Index (Democracy Index, 2017). The United States has been involved in the creation of numerous hybrid regimes, such as the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, and the Iraq war. Firstly, the United States funded most of the expenses taken place during the Iranian Coup d’état, and this event is known as the first major US undercover operation during peacetime. The major cause for this intervention is likely agreed to be the presence of oil in Iran, and the relations Iran had with Russia. This coup then leads to a hefty amount of political instability in Iran (Dehghan and Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, 2013). In the second example, the United States intervened in Iraq because President George W. Bush thought that Iraq had weapons of mass destructions, as well as links to terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda. The invasion began in 2003, and lasted until 2011, after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The war left the country in shambles, and this provoked terrorist groups such as ISIS to quickly gain support (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2018).
C) UN Action
The United Nations has been deemed as the institution that has made the hardest efforts to urge democracy upon countries across the world. This organization has shown its support on numerous occasions. The UN has done everything from monitoring elections to assure they are democratic to supporting the voice of the population.
Among these actions, the UN has also supported the creation of a just constitution in countries subsequent to a violent period. Democracy is one of the United Nations’ main principles, as the institution’s actions keep implying. In 2007, the former Secretary- General’s (Ban Ki Moon) Policy Committee had realized the request for the development of an international strategy that further emphasizes the UN’s determination to encourage the imposing of democracy. In this strategy, the three pillars of the UN’s work have been reflected, which are peace and security, development, and human rights. The Secretary- General also tasked the valuable job of monitoring democracy and strategy development by using frequent follow-ups, to the Democracy Working Group of the Executive Committee on Peace and Security (Democracy, UN, 2019). Throughout Ban Ki Moon’s run as the Secretary-General, he made three guidance notes that talked about how the democratic process should develop. Guidance notes are basically resolutions that come directly from the Secretary-General, but instead of applying to the countries of the UN, the guidance note is applied to all UN staff. The three notes specifically were written
about: the rule of law assistance, the rule on the constitution-making processes, and on democracy in general. Action has also been taken by UNDP, one of the main examples being the book published by the programme with the name of A Guide to Civil Society Organizations Working on Democratic Governance. This book helped CSOs (Civil Society Organizations), set defined goals under seven categories: advocacy, funding, legal assistance, networking, policy formulation and development, research, technical assistance and training (OECD, 2010).
III. Conclusion
To conclude, hybrid regimes have been quite present during the past years. They have been able to impact countries in continents such as Africa and Asia. Several reports regarding the level of democracy around the world have been carried out to moderate and emphasize oppressive regimes in countries similar to Iran and South Africa. The beginning of hybrid regimes can be identified when a wave of democratization spread across various continents during the 1980s. Throughout the years, several countries have failed to fully transition and have been living under a hybrid regime ever since. Hybrid regimes have been found as being quite harmful to its people. This conclusion was reached after hundreds of cases about the impediment of free speech occurred in countries along the Middle East and Africa. The United Nations has stood in favour of democracy and has made numerous efforts to protect it throughout the world.
IV. Essential Questions
1. What is a hybrid regime?
2. Is your country a hybrid regime?
3. How has your country been impacted by hybrid regimes?
4. What are the causes and consequences of a hybrid regime?
5. How have the people in your country been oppressed due to government status?
6. Has your country been close to experiencing a type of hybrid regime?
7. What is your country’s current position on hybrid regimes?
8. Does your country have any means of trade or public relation with a country that has implemented a hybrid regime in the present or the past?
9. What can peacefully prevent the creation of a hybrid regime?
V. Resources
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