Some of the most interesting debates on development include the role of democracy in promoting economic growth and then distributing the benefits of growth to achieve poverty reduction. Indeed, some of the questions that have attracted considerably scholarly attention in recent decades include the following: Are certain regimes better able and equipped than others to achieve economic growth? Does democracy work for the poor?
Despite considerable research on the topic, the results of the democracy-growth relationship are not always very clear. But there does appear to be stronger linkages between democracy and certain types of development outcomes, including literacy and infant mortality.
Guest: Carl Henrik Knutsen is a professor of political science at the University of Oslo. He has for many years studied the democracy-growth linkage and has published extensively on this subject. In a recent piece called the “Business case for democracy”, he argues that democracy works as a safety-net for avoiding the worst possible economic outcomes. And in relation to economic growth, he argues that autocracies have more variation — over countries and across time.
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