ABSTRACT
The widespread view that development requires autocratic government is rebutted; there is strong evidence that democracy has the advantage. Democratic governments tend to be more open to value-creating innovations and less likely to be as rapacious as autocratic governments. Democracy is an achievement and not easily imposed or even imported. The experience of post-colonial countries, as well as post-Soviet countries, suggests that bottom-up democracy proves to be more viable than institutions delivered through colonialism or foreign aid. Democratic, or civic, dignity depends not only on formal rules, but on norms, which reside in practices and not merely legal/administrative texts.
