Young NIMD

This lecture was the last one in the YIMD Lecture Series “Democracy in Progress” and was organized for the Dutch political youth organizations.

The audience discussed with Karim Knio why some democracies are able to consolidate themselves and others are not. He mentioned several countries where, according to him, the democracy process is on hold such as Russia, Thailand and Georgia.

Some say that to respect the existing democracy and democratic institutions is enough to consolidate democracy, while others argue that in order to consolidate, democracy needs to go beyond that and that it needs to be extended into social and economic areas in the society.

A representative of the Young Democrats asked Knio’s view on the situation in Venezuela. Clearly, Venezuela is not a consolidated democracy, he argued. The principle of democracy is not respected and it did not sink in among the population.

The CDjA (Yound Christian Democrats) asked Knio’s perspective on the work of NIMD. He answered that it is good that NIMD is fully aware of the fact that it is a political organisation. However, it should also be aware of ‘elite capture’ and be careful not to promote the Dutch style of democracy. For example, consensus building is not necessarily part of the democratic systems of the countries where NIMD works.