Effects of Political and Economic Systems: China, DRC and USA

Effects of Political and Economic Systems: China, DRC and USA Introduction Throughout the history of modern civilization, from the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians to the Roman Empire, the one stand out thing that propelled these empires was their use of structured religious, political and economic systems. As they spread their influence within the known world at the time, they always left behind their legacies of staunch political and economic control. The Romans for instance used their Senate to pass necessary legislation to control economic activities and gather tax to sustain the empire. The important thing learnt from these civilizations was that indeed, the nature of political systems used does affect the economic situation of a country and the quality of life in them.

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Why are they important to study?

Sound political governance has been known to generate peace and stability within a country that create the best possible environment to spur economic growth. To best illustrate this fact, three countries, China, DRC and USA suitably serve as examples.

China China despite all her rich cultural heritage was a shadow of itself throughout the later centuries of the last millennia. Its redemption was to come with the Communist Party after the end of World War II. The chairman of the party, Mao Zedong inspired the formation of an autocratic and very strict socialist system of governance. This system was based on the single party rule of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.).

Political setup and economic setup China’s communist set up is such that it has three braches of government; the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature. The Executive arm comprises of Chief of State, who is the President, the Premier, who is the head of government and a National People’s Congress constituted Cabinet that runs the government. A Unicameral National People’s Congress comprising 2987 members on five year terms run the Legislative wing. The other branch, Judiciary consists of all the legal courts of law within the People’s Republic starting with the Supreme Court to the other smaller courts.

The economic outlay of the country saw significant transformation during the 1970s from a centrally planned closed system to a vibrant market-oriented economy. This transformation has helped make China in 2010 become the world’s biggest global player in international trade as the largest exporter. Among the major transformations that ushered in this new dawn was

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abandoning the Collective Agriculture Policy which had been introduced in the 1950s, giving more autonomy to state enterprises and the subsequent reduction in strict price controls. These measures spurred the development of vibrant banking systems, stock markets and private sectors which could now attract foreign investors.

One policy that has from the late 1970s resulted to a tenfold economic increase by 2010 has been the decision by the Chinese to peg their economy to the American dollar. The result was when in 2008 they revalued their Yuan by 2.1% to the dollar, due to the economic downturn in the U.S, their currency gained by upwards of 20% against the dollar (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.). Looking at this change in another way shows their industrial and agricultural output by 2010 had a higher dollar value than America’s. China is the second largest economy behind only America ever since 2001 when it overtook Japan.

DRC Soon after independence, the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC had DRC renamed to Zaire by President Mobutu who had led a successful coup de tat against the independence government. During the scramble for Africa by the European powers, DRC was claimed by King Leopold of the Belgian Kingdom as part of his personal property. Up until its independence in 1960, it had been Belgium’s largest colony since as early as 1908. After independence the young nation continued to face social and political instability. The instabilities culminated with the 1965 coup led by a young service man, Col. Joseph Mobutu. Corruption and assassinations of political opponents was the hallmark of President Mobutu’s regime. He for 32years ruled Zaire with an iron fist without any distinction between the state’s and his personal property, much like King Leopold had done before him during the colonial period. In 1997, Mobutu was overthrown by the Ugandan and Rwandese backed rebel, Laurent Kabila. The rebel President’s regime was

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cut short when he was assassinated at the beginning of 2001. He was succeeded by Joseph Kabila, his son, who subsequently negotiated Rwandese soldiers’ withdrawal from Eastern DRC. President Kabila’s government has however never really managed to take control of the mineral rich East of the country and rebels are still in control of these areas (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.).

Political and economic systems The political setup is such that it consists of an executive branch headed by a president, a bicameral Legislature having a 108 member Senate and a 500 member National Assembly and lastly a Judiciary having the Appellate and Constitutional court among other smaller ones. DRC is a democratic multi party country. DRC is however still dogged with issues from its past; there is still a civil war being wagged in its eastern provinces. Due to the civil wars from independence onwards, conservative figures indicate that as many as 5 million citizens could have died as a result of crimes against humanity, diseases and famine. The government of Kabila was forced to implement some IMF reforms so as to have its massive debt reduced and access relief from the IMF to the tune of US$ 12 billion in 2010. The poor infrastructure along with the rebel wars have severely hampered the mining of the countries vast reserves of minerals, which it needs access to if DRC is to achieve her economic goals.

USA America was founded after the colonialists effectively broke off from the British Empire in the 1790s before proclaiming a declaration of Independence. Thereafter the different states in the country joined together to form the USA. The unique thing about the US is the nature of its capitalist economy. This economy has been very vibrant throughout the 20th century when it came face to face with the socialism of the Soviets and it triumphed over socialism with the

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eventual collapse of USSR. However, with the onset of the global economic meltdown in 2007, it was the American economy that has been among the worst casualty. Interest rates have gone up tremendously, large financial institutions have collapsed and the tax burden for the citizens has sky rocketed as government welfare expenditure has reached its all time high. The most telling sign that the economy is in serious need of recovery is the very high national debt level (Human Development Reports, 2012).

Table: A Comparison of Population and GDPs of China, DRC and the USA Country

Population (millions)

GDP (Billion US $)

China

1338.3

5926.6

DRC

66.0

13.1

USA

309.3

14586.7

Source: The World Bank, 2012 Discussion and Conclusion The natures of political systems used by different countries really do affect the economic situations of those countries. In systems that are viewed as being repressive such as that of China, the communist regime has come under heavy criticism for not tolerating democracy.

Human rights and the quality of life tend to be grossly violated and compromised as the government moves in to quell any form of decency and ensure strict compliance to its policies such as the one child policy. The danger of low domestic demand and very high savings in China reveals the over dependence of the economy on exports, which in case there is a significant drop in international demand for their products, millions of laborers would be left jobless. Environmental pollution has become the Achilles heel of the Chinese economy with Chinese cities ranked among the worst polluted places in the world.

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In DRC, people view the government system as a winner-takes-all outfit. The previous regime of president Mobutu went on corruption spree, literally reaping the country off its resources without conducting any significant infrastructural developments to the regions where the resources came from. Thus in an effort to ‘benefit’ their people with their own resources, rebels are continually engaging the government in a bid to join the lucrative mineral trade.

The American political system is without doubt the greatest in the world as it has managed to endure over 200 years of democracy with relative peace without any major incidents.

However, some of its recent policies such as those relating to inflation, foreign aid and welfare are threatening to make it collapse under its own weight. The runaway levels of national debt coupled with lack of jobs and people having their houses foreclosed are really making the quality of life of the average American very difficult.

References Human Development Reports (2012). Global Human Development Forum Istanbul March 22-23 2012. Retrieved on 25th April 2012 from http://hdr.undp.org/en/ Central Intelligence Agency, (n.d.) The World Factbook. Retrieved on 25th April 2012 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook.html The World Bank, (2012). Data. Retrieved on 25th April 2012 from http://data.worldbank.org/