[peterfirefly]

More like: Rwanda has a competent dictator (and has had the same one for 26 years, more if you consider the years where he was the strongman behind the President). A competent dictator is better than an incompetent dictator -- or even, in many ways, an incompetent democracy.

[ViktorRay]

Is Malawi an incompetent democracy? Based on the article it seems to have a functioning stable democracy.

Are you implying that a dictator would lead to Malawi becoming wealthy? Seems like a disturbing argument. If that’s not what you are implying then what are you implying?

[therein]

Are you implying that a "functioning" democracy automatically leads to good decisions being made and crowd always has good wisdom regardless of the attributes of the crowd?

To lead a country to prosperity is as simple as letting a nation vote and counting their votes and then giving power to the guy they voted for?

[jurgenburgen]

Rule of law is the best enabler for economic growth.

[ViktorRay]

After Malawi achieved independence in 1964, it was ruled by a dictator until 1994. During that time the country was poor. After 1994, the country transitioned into a democracy.

Now maybe somebody could come in here and say that perhaps that dictator just wasn’t good enough or something….

But I still think arguments like this are disturbing. Throughout the 20th century so many horrors have happened because someone stood up and demanded absolute power be given to them. That democracy wouldn’t take the nation to the greatness it deserved. And again and again we have seen the dark road this takes a nation toward.

I mean come on now. We have all learned about the horrors of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Even then we see comments like yours being negative towards democracy?

[sofixa]

> Is Malawi an incompetent democracy? Based on the article it seems to have a functioning stable democracy.

If a large portion of the state budget is spent on a fundamentally unproductive thing - subsidies to enable subsistence farming to be sustainable - yes.

[ZhadruOmjar]

I'll mention it here because it's tangentially related to your comment. The book "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families" about the Rwandan genocide and aftermath helped me understand the country and it's current state much better. The book has the added benefit of being from 1999 so has far fewer of the culture war components one would expect from a similar book released today.