The West is the best - 2 - Prosperity, well-being, freedom!
Thousands of people risk their lives on rickety boats to reach the West.
(Co-authored with Karel Beckman)
It is believed that Mahatma Gandhi was once asked what he thought of Western civilisation. He is said to have mockingly replied, "A great idea!"
It was indeed a great idea, but not in the way Gandhi had meant. The West, as we argued in Part 1 of this series, has achieved unique feats in the scientific and artistic fields. But it has also produced the most flourishing societies, with unsurpassed prosperity, well-being, tolerance and freedom. Societies rarely seen in Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East.
The liberal revolution that the West went through in the 18th and 19th centuries saw to it that oppression and the arbitrariness of power were reduced. Citizens were granted more and more rights and freedoms, such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the right to private property. Church and state were separated and people were allowed to decide for themselves which religious faith they adhered to. The judiciary became relatively independent of the state and citizens were presumed innocent until proven guilty. Monarchs could not suddenly decide to imprison or kill an opponent.
In the West, you may even mock the ruling powers. A film like Life of Brian, in which religion is mercilessly ridiculed, would be banned in many non-Western countries.
Economic freedom
Another unique feature was the economic freedom that citizens in Western countries acquired. They could choose their own profession, start a business, acquire property and trade freely with each other. This may seem obvious to all of us, but it was not so before the 18th century.
And it still isn't in most countries today. The main reasons why people in 'developing countries' have difficulty escaping poverty are bureaucracy and corruption. After extensive research, the liberal Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto concluded that people in poor countries are poor mainly because they do not have a secure legal status, which prevents them from freely acquiring their own property. As an example he stated: “If you want to buy a piece of land in Egypt and have it legally registered, you have to go through 77 procedures at 31 institutions and it takes 5 to 14 years”. Property rights are essential for freedom, prosperity and entrepreneurship.
Transparency International has published the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) annually since 1995. Western countries invariably score the highest in this index. Western officials rarely demand a bribe for a permit or document.
Motivation and talent are the most important conditions for success, not birth, a noble title or money.
Tolerance
Also in other areas, citizens in the West have more control over their lives. Nowhere else do organisations like trade unions, consumer associations and environmental organisations have more influence. Westerners also have more opportunities to get ahead in life and choose their own lifestyle than people in other countries. Nowhere else is there so much social mobility, and do people from low backgrounds have more opportunities to get ahead. In general, motivation and talent are the most important conditions for success, not birth, a noble title or money.
Nowhere else is there so much tolerance for minorities, dissenters or people with different sexual orientations. And although one sometimes gets a different impression when following the news, there is probably nowhere so little racism as in the West. Two Swedish economists researched this in 2013. For their World Values Survey, they asked people to what extent they had a problem with someone of a different ethnicity living next door to them. The results were surprising: Western countries were among the most tolerant, much more tolerant than, for example, India, China, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, Iran, Morocco, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
Equal
Western countries also lead the way in humanitarian and social terms. Much attention is paid to the happiness of children and child marriage and forced marriages are prohibited. Corporal punishment and the death penalty have been abolished in most Western countries. Women are of equal rights to men. The physically and mentally disabled are treated with compassion. Western countries are also characterised by a culture of philanthropy and "good causes", which you do not find everywhere.
In Western countries, much attention is paid to animal welfare, the environment and the conservation of nature. This is often different in other countries. We often hear that the oceans are drowning in plastic, but what you never hear is that more than 95% of that plastic comes from countries outside Europe and North America. As figures from Our World in Data show, the West also has the lowest air pollution and the cleanest water.
These achievements have certainly not been commonplace everywhere and at all times in the West. Fascism and communism, also "western" inventions, brought totalitarianism back to some western countries in the last century. Liberal ideas have certainly not always been put into practice consistently either. For a long time, they did not apply to blacks and other minorities or to the local population in Western colonies.
But many people who were oppressed in and by Western countries managed to free themselves by appealing to Western ideals. Leaders such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Mandela successfully fought for the emancipation of their peoples, inspired by the Western ideal of freedom and equality.
This is not to say that in other countries and cultures there are no lofty ideas about the value and dignity of human beings. Certainly there are. But nowhere have they been put into practice as widely as in the West.
Better anywhere else?
Sometimes criticism of the West is justified, because everything could be better. But is it better anywhere else in the world? In India with its pollution, poverty and caste system? In Africa with its nepotism, violence and low standard of living? In the Middle East, where corporal punishment is still practised, homosexuals are hanged and apostasy is punishable by death? In South America, where corruption reigns and where there are great inequalities between rich and poor? In China, where the government exercises totalitarian control over its citizens and there is no freedom of expression?
Has the West created the best societies in world history?
It is no coincidence that the world's migration and refugee movements always head towards Western countries. Thousands of people risk their lives on rickety boats to reach the West. Are they so eager to be racially oppressed by Westerners? A 2018 Gallup Poll shows that the US is still the most popular destination for the 750 million people worldwide who want to migrate. Shouldn't one simply conclude then that the West has produced the best societies in history and in the world?
But what about slavery, colonialism and imperialism? More on that in part three of this four-part series.