The Enhancement of State Capacity Requires Democracy

When it comes to state building, we see that many developing countries have failed to maintain the political order and enforce their authority. The failure of the state to create a political order, leading to uncertain political authority and legitimacy, ineffective public policies and insecurity, especially for the minority groups and or the poor. The main cause of these failure is bad governance. What can only make matters worse is intervention from outside. The national and international policies that contribute to the collapse of the state must be revised. Work must be done to develop the state and development needs better and no less intervention from the state. Development and democratization are mutually supportive. Work must be done on the institutional capacity of the state. The consequences of institutional capacity can be seen in various areas, namely the economic development of human rights, justice and poverty reduction.. Social development relies upon institutional limit. Institutions are of eminent importance for democracy in particular the rule of law and the impartial bureaucracy, which offers a bit of security to those who have no political power associated with wealth and social status.

When building institutions, it is important that all groups are taken into account, because ignoring inequalities of power in institution building can produce conflicting results. Both the political and administrative problems undermine the political capacity of the states and the building of policy capacity will not be easy because it is a threat to ruling elites and local rulers. The enhancement of state capacity requires democracy To achieve development, it is important that a coordination of all activities exist, in order to promote the state (our) prosperity. In a functional, regulatory state, with its regulatory capacity can provide service and value to the community. Imagine that the capacity of a country is weak, does that country need democracy to strengthen state capacity? Nowadays democracy is seen as a goal to achieve and as a means to achieve economic development, poverty reduction and protection of human rights. If that is true, it means that democracy goes hand in hand with state capacity.

In other words, countries with low state capacity need democratic institutions to impose minimum restrictions on governments and to channel policies of those in power on public goods supply and decent economic management, but nothing is less true. Democracy is not a sine -qua-non (or mandatory) condition that guarantees state prosperity, or even state good functionality. Several arguments presented below: The involvement of the West in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya was to strengthen the state's authority. What is striking about these countries is while they are promoting democratization, they have not been developed by democracy. The involvement of the West has led to a chaotic situation in those countries. These countries have been made democratic by the West (or at least the intention stated), while the conditions of the population have not improved. It seems that the administrative capacity has actually declined while they are democratic states. The subjects of these countries themselves indicate that they would rather have their old leaders back. The people, therefore, ask for their autocratic leaders, concluding that not that democracy (the will of the people) is the pillar of well being and good governance. Having said this, does not mean that democracy cannot strengthen state capacity? I will indicate from the example of the police force of Suriname that it depends on the situation.

The police force of Suriname is an organization that takes care of order and rest in the country. Because of this, you need a strong organization that functions well. In order for the organization to function properly, the administrative capacity is of eminent importance. Administrative capacity can be improved by a solid approach in creation of capacity building, - intellect and professional capacity, by paying attention to the education of the police personnel (government officials). In practice, we see that too. If we take into consideration the arrest team(AT) of the police force Suriname, we see that in their cases they succeed in most cases. this is the result of well-trained staff. they know where they stand and train regularly.

The police organization operates under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice and police. Which means that to a certain extent the police organization is democratically embedded because they are partly accountable to the minister of justice. With regard to public order, the authority rests with the district commissioner or citizen father and the public prosecutor for the investigation. The management of the police rests with the police chief. The distribution of responsibilities is reason why I say that the organization is democratic to a certain extent. If the organization were entirely under the direction of the Minister of Justice in the police, there could be a complete democratic embedding. Democracy can strengthen the capacity of the police force of Suriname to a certain level. democracy cannot be maintained in all situations. Imagine that the region assistance team from the middle region (RBT) Suriname during their regular surveillance are confronted with the criminals who were involved in the murder of the ex-journalist of “De ware Tijd van Suriname”, Isaak Poetisi on June 9, 2018. At that moment they are certainly going to battle, because the criminals are not going to give up easily and there is no time for deliberations to know how the people or the minister wants them to act. At that moment, action demands response. You need a strong leader who has to make the decisions, he have to call the shots. It is not about whether it is right or not. The result is important at that time. It does not matter how, because that is not the issue. The most important goal is for the criminals to be arrested. By arresting them a bit of peace in society. By arresting them, faith in the police restored. The strengthening of state capacity is possible through democracy, but that depends on the circumstances of the situation at that time. What is right is that the capacity of the state can be strengthened.

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