Although We Still Celebrate the Late Twentieth-Century as ‘Victory of Democracy'

Reading Passage Question

Although we still celebrate the late twentieth-century as ‘victory of democracy’, our understanding of what democracy entails in both theory and practice is increasingly subject to a variety of qualifying definitions, many of which now seem to devalue the role of elections and electoral accountability. This is so obviously seen in the politics of the European Union (EU), where the efforts to resolve conflicting issues in arenas where democratic authority is incapable as well as the efforts to depoliticize issues that relate to European integration have led to the development of a distinct political system in which the exercise of popular control and electoral accountability proves very difficult.

European Union’s democratic deficit within the context of the more widespread drift towards forms of decision-making eschews electoral accountability and popular democratic control. However, EU should not be seen as an exception or sui generis but best be regarded as a political system that has been constructed by national political leaders as a safeguarded sphere in which policy making can evade the constraints imposed by representative democracy. The rationale that lies behind it conforms closely to current thinking about the role of non-majoritarian institutions, on the one hand, and about the putative drawbacks of popular democracy, on the other.

Overall, EU can better be conceived as an outcome, or as the consequence of a longer developmental trajectory, in which the democratic process grows and mutates, and in which the mechanisms that allow democracy to function change and adapt. As the experience of the EU suggests, the combination of popular democracy and legitimacy is proving increasingly problematic in making key decisions - not only in Europe, but also further afield. To put it another way, the fact that conventional forms of democracy and representative government are difficult to apply at the level of the EU is not so much exceptional as symptomatic, and if we could democratize the European Union along conventional lines, then we probably wouldn’t need it in the first place.

“Although We Still Celebrate the Late Twentieth-Century as ‘Victory of Democracy'”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.
This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. From the passage, which of the following about the decision-making process in EU can be inferred as true?

1. It is an outgrowth of democracy, making up for the inability of a democratic process to make good decisions at various levels of an organization
2. Members who are not elected as decision makers by the general population of EU make key decisions.
3. The decisions made through the decision-making process are not popular with the electorate.
4. It does not adhere to the generally accepted norms of decision making in a strictly democratic manner.
5. It is the poster-child of a new form of decision making that is likely to become the de-facto standards for governments.

2. According to the passage the decision making process in EU is:

1. an evolution of current democratic process to suit decision making a level much higher than the democratic processes were designed for.
2. a disruption to the classical process of decision making that will likely spread to other continents.
3. an improvement that allows better decisions to be made.
4. a symptom of great changes to come that will transform democracy.
5. representation of a new form of thinking related to decision making in the free world.

3. The primary purpose of the passage is to:

1. describe the decline of electoral accountability in a world where countries combine to form unions.
2. provide anecdotal examples in which traditional democratic processes are unsuitable in the context of EU.
3. present an evolution of democratic decision making using an example.
4. describe the reasons for decline of democracy in Europe.
5. outline the causes that may lead to the rise of new political system in Europe.

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