The Democracy Dividend: Faster Growth
Contrary to popular misconception, authoritarian regimes rarely get the job done.
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
Photographer: Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images(This is the first of a series of columns on economic growth and the challenges to democracy.)
Democracy’s faults have been easy to spot throughout the ages. Plato equated democracy with anarchy, instability or even mob rule, and argued that it is the second worst form of government after tyranny. Aristotle was a little more charitable, but still suspicious of democratic processes, writing “it is not safe to trust them [the people] with the first offices in the state.” Many modern Western philosophers, including Montesquieu, Rousseau and Nietzsche, were similarly critical of democracy.
This view hasn't been uncommon even before the current woes of democracy, especially when it comes to the suitability of democracy as a form of government for most countries in the world. The respected judge and economist Richard Posner, for example, wrote in 2010 that “Dictatorship will often be optimal for very poor countries. Such countries tend not only to have simple economies but also to lack the cultural and institutional preconditions to democracy.”