Question

Use one of the following statements to complete the sentence: Democracy in the international organisations requires that__
(a) The rich countries should have a greater say.
(b) Countries should have a say according to their military power.
(c) Countries should be treated with respect in proportion to their population.
(d) All countries in the world should be treated equally

Answer 1

Hint: International organizations is an organization where more than one country is a member and is established by a treaty or other instrument governed by international law. Democracy is an ideal that most international organizations try to achieve.

Complete Answer: Democracy is not just a type of government but a political ideal too. It includes democratic ideals like liberty of expression, respect to everyone’s opinion, equal representation and say ,equality of opportunity and dignity of all. Democracy in international organization is important for strengthening the organization as well as for fair functioning of the same.
Democractic procedures should be used to make decisions within these organizations. This helps in better implementation of policy proposals that are decided in these organizations.
 -Let us look at the options given to us.
Option (A) states that the rich countries should have a greater say. This is incorrect as allowing the richer country greater say would create inequality in these organizations.
Option (B ) states that countries should have a say according to their military power. This is incorrect too as it will create inequality and might allow stronger countries to use these organizations as a tool to arm twist militarily weaker countries.
Option (C ) states that countries should be treated with respect in proportion to their population. This again would be going against democratic ideal of giving respect and dignity to all.
Option (D ) states that all countries in the world should be treated equally. This is the correct option. Only by treating all countries equally can internal democracy be achieved in these international organizations.

Therefore the correct answer is option (D).

Note: Despite having democracy as an ideal, most international organizations don’t put efforts to achieve it. The United Nations though has democratic procedure in the General Assembly, the Security Council is highly undemocratic with the five countries having veto power. Similarly, the International Monetary Fund has an undemocratic system where voting power is directed to money contributed to fund by the countries. Thus, richer countries have more voting power than the poorer ones.