Apr 02 2011
Week 9 Reading: Democracy and Economic Growth
Giovanni Carbone’s article “The Consequences of Democratization” looks at democratization as an independent variable. Rather than looking at democracy as an endpoint, he looks at it as a starting point.
In his examination of the consequences of democracy, time is a key factor for the author. He suggests that looking at the short-term effects of democracy (which can be quite different than long-term effects) risks missing the “true” effects of democratization. Carbone assesses the notion that many people believe that democracy has instant positive consequences by looking at the effects on democracy on the political, economic and social spheres over time by looking at democracy as a “stock”. The “stock of democracy” accounts for the extent of experience with democracy that a country has had.
He criticizes the viewpoint that democracy generates many positive effects and looks at some of the downsides of democracy. First he challenges the widely accepted notion that there is a positive relationship between democracy and social welfare by suggesting that democracy simply favours the survival of the worse-off and that it has had a limited success at fighting poverty in low-income countries. He then addresses the relationship between democracy and inequality by suggesting that initially democracies contribute to rising inequality that eventually produced equal outcomes by shrinking the gap between the rich and the poor. Finally, he addresses the enlargement of the public sector. Again he suggests that this is an effect that cannot be observed right away. As democracies become more established “by contrast, governments become more likely to adopt the kind of long-term perspective that favors the creation and execution of better social policy”.
Carbone’s (somewhat) pessimistic analysis of the consequences of democracy is refreshing as democracy is often looked at as endpoint that is the answer to every country’s problems. His look at democracy as a starting point is a necessary viewpoint that prospecting democracies need to take account of. Democracy does not bring all the effects immediately and some effects take a long time to become observable. Thus looking at democracy as a stock rather than measuring democracy at a given point in time, can yield better findings on the consequences of democracy.