Times of India has posted an interview with Berkeley Professor Pranab Bardhan, in which he compares the different approaches toward development taken by India and China:
Q: Looking at India and China, how do democracy and authoritarianism compare as systems that promote growth and development?
A: lot of people impressed by China’s success say that it is a better model for development. To that my response is that authoritarianism is neither necessary nor sufficient for development. Why do I say that? Let us take the case of authoritarianism not being necessary. There are many countries that have developed well without authoritarianism. Even if you leave out the rich countries, including Japan after the Second World War, there are examples from developing countries. Botswana is a country which has been democratic for many, many years and has been growing fast. Costa Rica is highly democratic and has grown fairly reasonably. India has grown reasonably fast. [Full text]