World Order in the Twenty First Century

Running head: WORLD ORDER IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY
World Order in the Twenty First Century
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Author Note

1WORLD ORDER IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY
In the olden times, the world experienced a form of rule where the Head of the State was
the King or the Queen, usually those who belonged to the so-called ‘royal blood’. This bloodline
was determined by the religious scriptures which were interpreted by the priests and teachers of
religious doctrines (Schedler 2015). As such, power in the ancient times was concentrated in the
hands of a few members of the State and they exercised this power in order to secure the future
of their kingdom. Some of the rulers of the State were benevolent towards their subjects and tried
to cater to their desires and wants, whereas many rulers were authoritative in nature and believed
in the centralization of the power of the State in their hand. This monarchial nature of the State
order gradually started to disintegrate when the world witnessed two devastating wars in the
form of the First World War and the Second World War. The centralization of powers in the
hands of a few members of the society was considered to be disastrous and therefore, it was now
decided that the common people should have a say in the affairs of the State which affects them
(Giroux 2018). This form of State order is known as democratic form of government where it is
the common people who wields the power of the State. This essay seeks to make a comparison
between the democratic form of power structure and the authoritarian form of state order. The
paper further analysis whether the present world order of the twenty first century is democratic
or authoritarian. The paper concludes with the importance of a democratic nature of the State in
the modern world. The purpose of the paper is to make a detailed analysis on the fact that
whether the contemporary world of today is becoming increasingly democratic in nature or
authoritarian in nature.
The authoritarian form of government refers to those government which grants limited
political freedom to its citizens and where the power of the State is concentrated in the hands of
one single individual. The authoritarian State believes that its citizens are subordinates of the

2WORLD ORDER IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY
State and hence, their demands and wants and not above the needs of the State (Kirscht and
Dilleha 2015). In such a state structure, the individuals have very limited access to their freedom
and rights. The characteristics of an authoritarian type of state structure was formalized by a
person known as Juan Linz in the year 1964 (Pettigrew 2016). According to him, there are four
important features which helps to distinguish an authoritarian form of government. For instance,
the first characteristic is that of limited political pluralism. This means that in an authoritarian
form of State the powers of the different agencies of the government such as the legislature and
the judiciary is severely restricted and that the entire power is vested in the hand of the ruler. The
second important characteristic is that the legitimate power to rule is based on emotions rather
than logic and reason. This is so because the power of the State has to be effectively utilized to
fight several societal evils such as terrorism and insurgency. Third, there should be limited social
mobilization so that the opponents to the ideal of the State are suppressed and there is minimal
interference from them (Dodge 2017). And lastly, the executive power of the State is not defined
properly as it keeps on shifting depending on who needs it the most during that particular time
period. All these decisions rest in the hands of the dictator. Authoritarian form of government
was seen in the course of the World Wars, for instance, in the cases of Germany and Italy. In
Germany, the dictator was Adolf Hitler and he had serious grievances with the Western Powers
as they had striped Germany of her powers after her defeat in the First World War (Hetherington
and Weiler 2015). Hitler swore to revive Germany to her former glory and embarked on the
journey to cause mayhem. He established an authoritarian form of power structure in Germany
and it had serious adverse consequences for the entire world in the form of the outbreak of the
Second World War.

3WORLD ORDER IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY
The democratic nature of government refers to that form of power structure where the
power of the State is distributed amongst the people who belong to that concerned State (Achen
and Bartels 2017). The objective of such a form of power structure is to allow the citizens of the
State to have a say in the affairs of the State. There are two types of democratic government that
is direct democracy and indirect democracy. In a direct democracy, it is the people who
themselves exercise the power of the State directly. They themselves are the representatives of
the State and work for the well-being of the society. They do not exercise the medium of voting
as they are not required to elect anyone (Westbrook 2015). This type of direct democracy is
therefore only possible in a State with minimal population as it would be easier to handle the
affairs of the State in an organized manner. Another type of democracy is the indirect democratic
power structure. In indirect democracy, it is the citizens of the State who exercise the power held
by them through the medium of voting. In other words, the potential representatives of the
government of the concerned State put forth their names in the electoral process and then it
depends on the citizens of the State to vote for that particular representative whom they feel is
the most capable to work for the welfare of the society (Hammar 2017). The representatives with
the most number of votes get elected to serve their country. They exercise the power invested in
them to carry forward the policies and regulations which would promote the well-being of the
people of the State. If they fail to deliver their promises and their work adversely affects the
citizens of the State then it depends on the people to remove the concerned representatives from
the government. Thus, even though the power of the State is exercised by the representatives of
the government, in reality, it is the common people who has all the power vested in their hands
(Habermas 2015). Indirect type of democracy is more suited for big countries with huge