Jagdish Bhagwati is Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and professor of political science at Columbia University. He is also a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
Liberty and self-government are not only good in themselves, but also have powerful and beneficial effects on a nation’s level of economic development and prosperity.
New data covering most of the 1990s reveal that democracy, even when minimally defined, has a potent independent impact that tends to reduce infant mortality and promote overall social well-being.
