ABSTRACT
"Development" means more than economic growth. Countries in other parts of the world that score low on the Human Development Index tend to be authoritarian. This confirms the common-sense assumption that people who are very poor find it hard to establish and sustain democracy. Democratic governments are too slow to act. According to the apologists for authoritarianism, democratic governments cannot implement farsighted policies of national saving and sacrifice because elected officials must constantly mollify their constituents with immediate benefits. The bar graph shows the changes in governmental systems for each Southeast Asian country from 1960 to 1995. In Southeast Asia, the Philippines comes closest to meeting our criteria for full democracy. However, in the categories of citizen participation and civil liberties, the Philippines may be considered a semidemocracy. In Democracy and Development in Southeast Asia, the author have viewed the region from two both perspectives, that of Southeast Asians and that of Westerners.
