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Originally posted by Spanky
I don't understand.
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I'm saying that perhaps the sorts of things that make a country wealthy are also likely to make it a democracy.
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Growing economies tend to produce a middle class, and a strong middle class tends to demand democracy. Of course countrys whose growth depends on natural resources don't tend to have the same sort of middle class. Like I said before, the key to a democracy is sustained growth over an extended period of time.
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All of this is true except when it isn't. You sound like a Marxist.
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They are definitely more democratic than they used to be, which is because of their growth. But they are not completely democratic.
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To say the least. They are holding some fashion of election.
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Their middle class is not that strong yet. But it is getting bigger every day.
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And yet it is no democracy. If you're telling me that democracy in China is inevitable, wonderful, but that's theory, not fact.
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What I am trying to say is that Prosperity is the key to a sustained democracy. An economics professor (whose name escapes me right now) demonstrated that generally countrys whose PCI rises above $4,000 a year become stable democracies. By this point they throw off their dictatorship, and they tend to stay democratic once they do. Countrys that are below that number are not that stable. In addition, Demoracy ain't all that great when your people are starving and uneducated. So the key is get your country to a $4,000 per year PCI. I believe US policy should be to get as many countrys past that threshold as possible. To get a country to the $4000 PCI there are certain policies they should follow. Stable currency, investment in infrastructure, investment in Education (critical), no subsidizing inneficiency, enforcement of contracts, atmosphere respecting foreign investment, no currency controls, respect for property rights, etc. I would assert that anyone that encourages countrys not to adopt these policies is promoting poverty and dictatorships.
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OK. I agree that those are worthy goals for a foreign policy. Figuring out how to get it done is quite another thing.
