Impact of Democracy on Development Question 1: What impact does democracy have on

The single most important thing about a regime in either helping or hurting economic growth in a country is whether it produces enough stability for people to go about their daily lives in with some amount of security and safety. If this is not provided, economic growth is nearly impossible. The worst situation is a civil war, which usually will probably cause a country to become even poorer than it was before. It is hard to know for certain, because when a country is in a civil war, or a revolution or some other major disorder, we seldom have much information about the economy (Easterly, 2001, p. 65). In the middle of shooting and violence, people do not go around gathering economic statistics. What evidence there is, however, seems to confirm that major disorder is a disaster for economic development

This may happen because different groups are rebelling against the government. Or it may happen because the government is so weak that it cannot control factions or tribes in their battles with each other. Either way the government cannot provide the basic order and security that economi

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ity and ongoing struggle between elites and masses (De Soto, 2000, p. 3). This also poses an ongoing threat to the recent democratization in Latin America (Gamarra, 1994, p. 5). This is closely related to the concept of rent-seeking. Where elites can make profits in a free market, they have little need to oppress the rest of the population. But where elites obtain their wealth by rent-seeking -- that is, by controlling monopoly power -- they often must use oppression to hold onto their elite position (Weede, 1998, pp. 373-75). The result is that rent-seeking systems are both anti-democratic and anti-development. In this reverse way, democracy and development go together. A country that can overcome a rent-seeking elite and become democratic also has better prospects for development. There does not seem to be a clear reason for saying that democracy causes development, or even for saying that democracy by itself makes development easier. It seems instead that democracy and development go together, but that both have other causes in the political culture of a nation. Thus a country that is able to maintain democratic institutions can probably also develop faster economically, because the same conditions support both democr
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Hussein Iraq, Adam Smith, De Soto, , Valenzuela Valenzuela, Dos Santos, America Gamarra, Latin America, Wealth Nations, America Periods, economic development, civil war, dependency theory, latin america, economic growth, civil wars, political economy, de soto, industrial countries, economy global, boulder lynne rienner, global inequality boulder, economy global inequality, seligson mitchell passe-smith, lynne rienner pp,
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