Professional Documents
Culture Documents
What We Know:
According to data collected and analyzed for the book, there has been no
advantage for autocracies over democracies for the past 40 years in terms of
development. Both developing country democracies and non-democracies
have grown at approximately 1.5% of GDP per capita per year during that
time. When East Asia is removed from that sample, democracies have
actually performed better growing at 0.5% per capita per year faster than
autocracies and mixed polities. What is more, there is no data on about 25%
of autocracies countries such as North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan (for most of
its rule), and Cuba so actual growth figures for autocracies would likely be
substantially lower if the performance of these additional countries were
included.
The international financial institutions (IFIs), often criticized for their neglect
of democracy as a factor in decision-making, have actually provided a useful
insulation of the assistance process from politics and member countries'
specific geopolitical agendas. This has resulted in more assistance being
provided more effectively to a broad range of countries over time. In
addition, over the last ten years, the largest portion of international
assistance for governance issues has come from the IFIs.
What Are the Next Steps; What Should Be Done and by Whom?