Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by JumpCrisscross 3035 days ago
Political stability encourages growth [1]. The form of government seems largely irrelevant [2]. China is moving from a stable if novel mode (small-group democratic dictatorship) to an unstable mode (single-leader dictatorship).

[1] https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4553024/alesina_...

[2] https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdf/10.1257/jep.7.3.51

1 comments

>Political stability encourages growth

Absolutely. That is why the US, thanks to having a multi-party democracy, never got anywhere with the industrial revolution. And that is why Putin's Russia is leading the world in technological innovation and economic growth.

Of course, if when you say "political stability" you mean the absence of things like civil wars and coups, well yes, that really helps economic growth. But I don't think Xi is making himself dictator-for-life because China is on the verge of that sort of instability.