This paper compares and analyzes the effects of democratic institutions and democratic citizenship and culture on unification and integration during the unification process of Germany and Yemen, respectively. Democratic institutions and democratic cu...
This paper compares and analyzes the effects of democratic institutions and democratic citizenship and culture on unification and integration during the unification process of Germany and Yemen, respectively. Democratic institutions and democratic culture can contribute to stability, peace and integration by providing cultural foundations and institutional means to resolve conflicts peacefully. Therefore, the differences between the democracy levels of the two countries were compared by the Freedom House Index, Polity IV, Barker's democratic theory, and analyzed the effect on unification.
The Cold War, which lasted for more than 40 years after World War II, began to change in 1985 when Gorbachev came to power as the General Secretary of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, and other communist countries had reforms, openings, and democratization; the tide of democracy also affected East Germany and South Yemen. As East Germany and South Yemen withdrew from the socialist dictatorship and introduced democratic and market economy systems, such as the multi-party system and the electoral system, political integration was rapidly progressing as the West German and North Yemeni systems became similar. This is because political integration was facilitated by the introduction of a democratic system that seeks social stability, peace, and unity between the two countries, whose unification is clear and historical, cultural, and ethnically homogeneous.
Unified Yemen and Germany were the same in that they pursued democracy, but their background and results(outcomes) were completely different. East Germany has achieved'democracy from below' by demanding freedom and democratization from the people, and the German Union, which promised rapid unification with West Germany in the general election, won and processed through approval of German reunification from the victorious countries through agile diplomacy, and completing the reunification. On the other hand, in South Yemen, “the democratization from above” was implemented by political leaders to introduce a democratic system in order to overcome the changes in international relations, prolonged economic stagnation, and the political crisis caused by civil war.
However, Yemen's political leaders and people's understanding of democracy was still immature. As a result, the outcome were different in Germany and Yemen after the reunification. Germany closed the economic slowdown due to the huge unification cost and the conflict between the people of East and West Germany and leaped back to become a world-class powerhouse, whereas Yemen was unable to resolve political, economic, diplomatic, and socio-cultural conflicts triggered by general election during the transition period, ending up with reunification by force after the civil war between political parties. Even after, the confusion was intensified and after 30 years of reunification and Yemeni are living in poverty, hunger, and the threat of life in the civil war. Hence, the difference in the level of democracy between Germany and Yemen may caused the difference between Germany and Yemen today. In this way, the introduction of a democratic system promotes political integration, yet social and cultural integration is influenced by the political leaders or the maturity of people's understanding and culture on democracy.