Authoritarianism: Encyclopedia II - Authoritarianism - Economic arguments for authoritarianism

Authoritarianism - Economic arguments for authoritarianism

One controversial belief, especially in Asia, is that countries with authoritarian regimes are more likely to be economically successful than democratic countries. Examples given to support this thesis are South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan, which were considered authoritarian during their period of growth. This notion of developmental authoritarianism is a central justification for the rule of the Communist Party of China within the People's Republic of China. (The notion that authoritarian government is ultimately superior to democracy was also part of the idea of Asian values, although it diminished somewhat after the Asian financial crisis in 1998.)

One counter-argument is that there are many instances of authoritarian nations that have not encountered rapid growth, for example the Philippines and Indonesia. In Europe, Spain under Francisco Franco's authoritarian and conservative regime was considerably less economically developed than neighbouring countries such as France, even though the latter had suffered from the devastations of World War II.

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first Prime Minister, purportedly justified its strict social conduct laws as "a way to force civility onto a third-world country," which it was at the time of its separation from Malaysia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Economic arguments for authoritarianism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki