The Democracy Advantage: How Democracies Promote Prosperity and Peace

by Halperin; Morton H

• ISBN13: 9780415950527
• ISBN10: 041595052X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-29
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

For decades, policies pursued by the U.S. and other industrialized nations towards the developing world have has been based on a dirty little secret among policy experts: democracy and development don't mix. Turning this long-held view on its head, The Democracy Advantage makes a bold case that they do. In this timely, penetrating analysis, the authors of this path breaking book dismantle the conventional wisdom that democratic reforms are destabilizing and that the U.S. must first promote development - often relying on authoritarian regimes - in order to create a middle class that will support democracy. Reviewing 40 years of hard, empirical data, from China and India to Chile and Iraq, the authors show that poor democracies beat poor autocracies in every economic measure. In addition, the authors offer dramatic evidence that democracies are less likely to fight each other and that terrorists more often find safe haven in authoritarian countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. Wide-ranging and grounded in solid research, The Democratic Advantage outlines a new vision of foreign policy that combines the best of America's democratic and economic values.

Author Biography

Michael M. Weinstein is Director of Programs for the Robin Hood Foundation.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Exposing a 50-Year-Old Myth

Democracy and Development: Setting the record right

Sustaining New Democracies

Democracy and Security

Making Development Safe for Democracy

Democracy as the Default Option

Bringing Democracy Into the Center of a Comprehensive Development Strategy

The Great Race

Appendices

Endnotes

Bibliography

About the Authors

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.