One big virtue of democracy is that it helps defuse social tensions. The different paths of South Korea and Hong Kong are proof of that
is often described as a possible flashpoint. Across this narrow body of water, China points thousands of missiles at the country it regards as a rogue province. But for those working on Formosa 1, an offshore wind farm, the strait is something else. “It’s the best wind in the world,” said one engineer recently, looking out at a cluster of turbines on the turquoise water.
Hong Kong’s leaders since its handover to China in 1997 are, however, no advert for undemocratic rule either. The first chief executive stepped down early, the second ended up in jail and the third was too unpopular to serve a second term. Meanwhile the current chief executive is so widely disliked that she transformed recent local elections, normally low-key affairs, into a devastating de facto referendum on her rule.
More systematic studies are similarly mixed in their conclusions. A landmark 1996 paper by Robert Barro of Harvard University reached the “unpleasant” conclusion that too much democracy tended to have a harmful effect on growth. He speculated that the redistribution required to appease a majority of voters could dilute incentives for investment and work. His statistical exercises suggested that a middling amount of political freedom was best: about as much, in fact, as Singapore now enjoys.
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