Cadet Killian Buckley's Blog

“Democracy: A Comparison Part II”

Cadet Killian Buckley

Politics of East Asia

17 November 14

LTC Sanborn

Works Cited:

See endnotes , in class discussion/lecture , and class note

Elsa Sze came and spoke to our class regarding her experiences growing up in Japan and her company Agora.^[1]  She presented herself extremely well; she received her undergraduate from the University of Chicago and her MBA from Harvard University.  She is the daughter of immigrants from China, Hong Kong specifically.   She grew up in Hong Kong for part of her childhood, but she strongly considers herself to be American.  She was very personal in her speech and she shared stories to our class regarding why she believes what she believes and why she is such a huge proponent of open, fair democratic systems.

One of her stories struck me as the most significant story that related to my own idea regarding democracy and the liberal system.  She told us a story of how, upon returning to China to visit, she was carrying a bag full of books.  At customs, she was told that her books had to be searched.  Specifically, they had to read through her books that dealt with the history of China.  While, all of her books were of ancient China, the inspectors feared that her books may be more about modern China, specifically events like Tiananmen Square.  The Chinese government has been known to alter history books and media in order to control and manipulate.  Elsa Sze said that she was shocked and outraged.  She was disgusted that they saw books, knowledge as a threat.

I can relate to this story in a sense that I feel that Americans and citizens of free, democratic nations of the world are disgusted by corruption.  The American democratic system highlights the importance of individual rights and protecting the minority from the majority.  Part of this protection of the minority relates to the idea that there ought not to be a wealthy “elite” which, in theory, prevents high level corruption.

Throughout American history, there have been varying levels of corruption.  Probably the rude awakening for many American’s was the Watergate Scandal.^[2]   This was due to the fact that the corruption could be traced to the highest level of government, the executive office, the office of the President of the United States of America.  This and the on-going Vietnam war led to a distrust by the American public.  However, more importantly it also was part of the maturing of a nation, from a nation full of ideals with blind faithful citizens to a wiser nation with invested, questioning, active citizens.  This corruption, while painful, has led to a more involved population that seeks to hold those in power accountable.  The United States’ media often releases stories of corruption by lower level state officials, or even congressmen.  This media, while difficult to swallow by the American public is deemed as necessary and helps inform the public.

The prevention of corruption seems to be the main issue within these developing East Asian democracies.^[3]   Is the level of corruption less tolerated in these East Asian democracies or is there a higher level of actual corruption?  While we do not know the actual answer, it can be assumed that corruption is an issue in these developing nations.  However, unlike the United States, which has matured from corruption, these East Asian democracies can be destroyed by corruption from within.  This may in part be due to the culture of

Recently, President Xi Jinping of China has begun a campaign to display to the public that he is against corruption and is serious about destroying a culture of corruption.  He has investigated 82,533 members of China’s Communist Power.  We shall see if is a small step towards the ending of corruption and we shall also see if this step towards ending corruption in the region and developing more democratic systems. ^[4]

This relates back to Elsa Sze due to her company.  Her company, Agora, seeks to to be an online town hall in which citizens can reach out to the representatives using the internet.  She has various start-ups in the Boston area and ,possibly soon, in developing democracies in the Middle East.  During her talk to our class, she mentioned that there was indeed corruption in China and East Asian nations.  This was mainly, in her opinion, due to corruption and a lack of active citizens.  She, however, also noted that the United States is not perfect either.  She believes that we, as Americans, ought to continue to work and care for our own democracy if we want it to continue and thrive.  She said that the “default projection is to always go down”.  Therefore, we ought to use new, innovative ideas, such as companies like Agora, to improve our democratic systems.  If we, as a stable democracy can reduce corruption and solve problems, then, perhaps citizens from East Asian nations can learn from our development and utilize the lessons that we have learned to further improve their developing democracies so that no book is turned away from customs.