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.
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.
Democracy is spreading everywhere except in the Arab world. Arab elections are an immense masquerade. Corrupt dictatorships seek to stifle freedom of thought and to control the flow of information.
