Democracy on the march:

We were somewhat surprised at Hugo Chávez's stong showing at the polls in Venezuela. There had been much talk of discontent, but as Political Animal puts it "Chávez is a champion of Venezuela's poor, promoting agrarian reform and redistribution of oil revenue", so the vote was a chance for the poor to assert themselves. In a similar vein, the recent elections in India (Apr/May) was also a sign of the poor exerting political power. We read in Wikipedia, "The BJP government had concentrated more on the market and economic reforms that benefitted the urban people at the expense of the rural poor and the farmers." (NOTE: That wasn't the only reason the BJP lost control.)

We're not saying democracy is bad, but it does appear that for emerging countries with a substantial proportion of poor people, elections will tend to slow down economic development - by transferring wealth in order to establish a more equitable society. The leaders in China know that, and they will probably want to keep their poor away from the political process while they concentrate on getting their economy up to a world-class level. But that will be a difficult, if not impossible task. In any event, how that unfolds will be very interesting.

posted by Quiddity at 8/18/2004 07:52:00 AM