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Article: Why democracy is good for development.
- Article from:
- UN Chronicle
- Article date:
- September 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 United Nations Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CAN DEMOCRACY DELIVER? The good news is, yes, it can. Most of the countries with the highest level of human development are democracies, while most of the poorest are autocracies.
But democracy is not necessary for development. Singapore and South Korea, considered to be among the world's richest countries, prove the point: the reasons for their rapid progress range from high levels of education to sound economic policies. On the other hand, China and India, the world's most populous nations, are both medium-level development countries. Authoritarian China (ranked 85 in the 2005 Human Development Index) is ahead of India (127), but far behind Japan (11), which ...