Democracy and Economic Development
Democracy and Economic Development*
Adam Przeworski Department of Politics New York University
I examine the mutual relation between political regimes and economic development. An analysis of regime dynamics shows that while the paths to democracy are varied, once established for whatever reasons, democracies survive in developed countries. Contrary to long-standing arguments, political regimes do not affect the rate of investment and of the growth of total income. But since population grows faster under dictatorships, per capita incomes increase more rapidly under democracies. In the end, there is not a single reason to sacrifice democracy at the altar of development.
* Published in Edward D. Mansfield and Richard Sisson (eds.), Political Science and the Public Interest (Columbus: Ohio State University Press). This is a revised version of a paper originally written for the United Nations Development Program, with whose permission it is published here.
Introduction I examine the mutual relation between political regimes and economic growth. Two questions are discussed: (1) Whether economic development affects the emergence and the survival of political regimes and (2) Whether political regimes affect economic performance. These two questions are inextricably connected. To determine whether political regimes affect economic performance, we must first ask how political regimes emerge and endure. Unless this question is posed first, we will be unable to distinguish the effect of the conditions under which political regimes find themselves from the effect of regimes. Suppose that you were to observe that in 1985 per capita income of Mali, dictatorship, grew at the rate of 5.35 percent. Would the rate of growth of Mali in 1985 b different een had it been a democracy? This is what we want to know when we ask about the impact of political regimes on growth. But we do not observe 1985-Mali as a democracy, only as a dictatorship. True, we could look for a case
Adam Przeworski Department of Politics New York University
I examine the mutual relation between political regimes and economic development. An analysis of regime dynamics shows that while the paths to democracy are varied, once established for whatever reasons, democracies survive in developed countries. Contrary to long-standing arguments, political regimes do not affect the rate of investment and of the growth of total income. But since population grows faster under dictatorships, per capita incomes increase more rapidly under democracies. In the end, there is not a single reason to sacrifice democracy at the altar of development.
* Published in Edward D. Mansfield and Richard Sisson (eds.), Political Science and the Public Interest (Columbus: Ohio State University Press). This is a revised version of a paper originally written for the United Nations Development Program, with whose permission it is published here.
Introduction I examine the mutual relation between political regimes and economic growth. Two questions are discussed: (1) Whether economic development affects the emergence and the survival of political regimes and (2) Whether political regimes affect economic performance. These two questions are inextricably connected. To determine whether political regimes affect economic performance, we must first ask how political regimes emerge and endure. Unless this question is posed first, we will be unable to distinguish the effect of the conditions under which political regimes find themselves from the effect of regimes. Suppose that you were to observe that in 1985 per capita income of Mali, dictatorship, grew at the rate of 5.35 percent. Would the rate of growth of Mali in 1985 b different een had it been a democracy? This is what we want to know when we ask about the impact of political regimes on growth. But we do not observe 1985-Mali as a democracy, only as a dictatorship. True, we could look for a case