![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Any way, I read numerous times by various authors that for China to transition to an "advance economy" they will become more like us and democratic. Note in this context, they are talking about being rich, and before someone asks, there is a definition in US dollars in GDP / capita which is counted as "rich" but I don't know it off the top of my head.
To further elaborate, they are not saying that becoming rich leads to democracy, you must first become democratic. I will be very surprised if people haven't read some variation of the theme. But just in case anyone hasn't heard this claim, try Stephanie Flanders from BBC here.
That got me thinking, is it democracy or other factors which made the West rich (in GDP and GDP / capita terms) compared to the rest (ie the so called great divergence) ?
Going on, it occurs to me one can do a simple thought experiment. Simply assume some democratic state minus some of these other factors, compare it to a non democratic state which has some other factor you are comparing to, and see if you think the democratic state will have the same economic output per capita vs the non democratic state. For example I could compare a pre industrial democratic state with a third world dictatorship shit hole, but a shit hole with say, 20th century technology, and I would suspect if the technological difference was far enough, the third world dictatorship would still have a higher economic output. This would imply that technological development would be a more important factor. Rinse and repeat for any other factor you wish to compare to.
From what I understand on the topic of the "Rise of the West relative to the Rest"...
Jared Diamond ascribes it to geography (note this is just what I recall from a summary of his works)
Niall Ferguson has his "6 killer apps" none of which include democracy
Ian Morris was recommended to me, but I haven't found his book yet.
I suspect Francis Fukuyama might have a differing view though.
I am sure there are more books and authors on the subject, but I most probably don't have the time to read them all. So I put forward these questions to the board.
1. In regards to the faster economic development of the West vs the rest, does any historian or anthropologist suggest democracy is one of those factors at all, or is this just something commentators couching history in ideology do?
2. How democratic were Western countries during this period where Europe become dominant? To clairfy, when I saw how democratic, I am comparing to modern democratic nations.