“Political rights enable people to participate freely in the political process, which is the system by which the polity chooses authoritative policy makers and attempts to make binding decisions affecting the national, regional, or local community. In a free society, this represents the right of all adults to vote and compete for public office, and for elected representatives to have a decisive vote on public policies.” Though India, Benin, and the Philippines are all rated as free and democratic and enjoy a high level of civil rights, they still have low PPP’s ($2,248.00, $990.00, and $3,971.00 respectively) and low life expectancies (61 yrs, 53.8 yrs, and 69.3 yrs respectively) comparable to Burma/Myanmar ($1,027 and 56 yrs), Egypt ($3,420.00 and 66 yrs) and Indonesia ($2,857.00 and 67 yrs) which are not f

“People must be free to exercise their choices and to participate in decision-making that affects their lives. Human development and human rights are mutually reinforcing, helping to secure the well-being and dignity of all people, building self-respect and the respect of others.” Benin, India, Philippines, Belize, Mexico, and Costa Rica as noted previously are all free democracies that enable them to participate in the “decision-making that affects their lives” , but they are all at differing levels of wealth and industrialization. According to the reading “What Democracy Is… and Is Not,” “Democratization will not necessarily bring in it’s wake economic growth, social peace, administrative efficiency, political harmony, free markets…but they are neither prerequisites for it nor immediate products of it.” The conclusion is that no, less developed countries are not less, but can be just as democratic and free as industrialized and wealthy counties.

ree democracies but have been dominated by authoritarian and military regimes.

It does generally follow that there is a correlation between low life expectancy and low incomes or PPP. In other words, if the country has a low live expectancy it will certainly be poor, for instance, Benin has a life expectancy of 53.8 years and a PPP of $990.00, and India has a life expect

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