Is democracy good for economic growth? Click here to read a recent post by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson which argues that democracy is beneficial for economic growth. The post brings together their work on this area and supplies links to the underlying research.
My view on this is that there is possibly an inverted-U-shaped relationship between democracy and growth. In other words, a certain amount of democracy is good for growth, but too much democracy is bad for growth. Click here to see my work on this issue.
How can there be too much democracy? Ultimately, this depends on the extent of the electoral franchise. If the franchise is too broad, then we could end up with the tyranny of democracy or mob rule. This raises a difficult question: who should be in the franchise? I believe that it should only be those who have a stake in the society and its survival. However, identifying who are the stakeholders is by no means straightforward.
