Improving Our Standard of Living (Wattpad Edition)

Chapter 31: Democratization

In a country that's more democratic, people have more control over their personal lives. And they have a greater say in the creation of laws.

More personal freedom, and more control over legislation. That's democracy.

Let's break down these two components.

Personal freedom includes things like the right to drive, own property, dress the way you want, vote, own a business, trade with people in other countries, express yourself without censorship, smoke marijuana if you want, marry someone of the same sex if you desire, etc. Some of the most tyrannical laws ever implemented were done so under the guise of protecting people from themselves. But hand-holding is just a form of control. Societies are always better off when people are treated as adults and given the right to make their own choices.

The second component of democracy is that every citizen has an equal right to influence legislation. Laws affect you personally. Not having a say over policies that personally affect you wouldn't make sense.

Of course, laws affect other people too. Maybe you want a rule that somebody else doesn't. The best solution is to give everyone an equal say over the policies that affect their lives. Each individual may not always get his or her way, but democracy guarantees that we all have an equal say. Minorities often become majorities and majorities often become minorities. There's nothing wrong with that. That's how democratic societies work out their problems and correct mistakes.

One way to approximate how democratic nations are is to look at their scores on the Democracy Index. It's created by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It measures the extent of citizens' civil rights, especially how much influence they have over policymaking.

Recall earlier there's a strong correlation between countries' scores on the Democracy Index and their scores on the Market Freedom Index. Nations that are more democratic have fewer, simpler business regulations and are more open to free trade. They are more capitalistic.

Unsurprisingly, countries that score higher on the Democracy Index also score better on the Standard of Living Index.

Actually, that might be surprising to a lot of people. It's mindboggling how often democracy is still criticized, even in the 21st century. We often hear anti-democratic phrases like "people are stupid," "democracy is a tyranny of the majority," "the Founding Fathers were against democracy," "people elect stupid politicians," "in a democracy, people will plunder the national treasury," and "democracy is two wolves and one sheep deciding what to have for dinner."

Yet nations that are more democratic almost always have better living standards.

That was true historically as well.

Ancient Athens had the greatest standard of living in the world during the time it was a direct democracy. And, relative to its geographical influence, it played the largest role in the creation of Western Civilization.

The Roman Republic had the best quality of life and least amount of corruption when it was a fully-functioning representative democracy. Its decline began when its democratic system was undone.

Centuries later, when representative democracy resurfaced again in Western Europe, the region's living standards surpassed the rest of the world.

Since the Industrial Revolution, democracy has spread around the globe, and living standards have improved most in nations that are the most receptive to it.

Today, countries that are more democratic almost always have better living standards. See figure 49.

Figure 49