Democracy and economic growth
Topic: Democracy: Forms of Government, Principles and Outcomes · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Outcomes of Democracy"
Meaning
This is the question of whether democracies grow richer faster than dictatorships. Class 10 uses a study by Przeworski and others (2000). It shows dictatorships grew slightly faster overall, at 4.42% against 3.95% for democracies. Among poor countries, the gap almost disappears: 4.34% for dictatorships and 4.28% for democracies. So democracy neither guarantees growth nor blocks it. The data actually cover 1950–1990, not 1950–2000 as NCERT says.
Example
Amartya Sen (1999) noted that no major famine has happened in a working democracy with a free press. The Bengal famine of 1943 happened under colonial rule. India has had no such famine since 1947. This counters the "Lee thesis", the claim that authoritarian rule brings faster growth.
Don't confuse with
- Democracy and economic inequality: this is about how the gains of growth are shared, not how fast the economy grows.