National Differences in Political Economy

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i. A democratic political system is an essential condition for sustained economic progress. Discuss. Answer: I don’t think a democratic political system is an essential condition for sustained economic progress. I cannot deny that in many countries a democratic political system can help the economic progress. But it is not necessary. The best example is China. Until now, china still doesn’t have a democratic political system, but who can deny that now day’s china has the fastest economy progress in the world. ii. What is the relationship between corruption in a country (i.e., bribe taking by government officials) and economic growth? Is corruption always bad? Answer: I think the relationship between corruption in a country and economic growth should be inverse. Congress for instance can only get more "bribes" if they have more control over the economy. Growth rates and the percent of GDP controlled by government are inversely related. By inference, then, higher levels of corruption would be correlated to lower rates of economic growth in most of countries. And I think the corruption is not always bad. By example, the former president of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra. He has terrible corruption problem. But since coming to power in February 2001, the Thai economy in his steady development under the auspices of Thailand in Southeast Asia also became the fastest growing economy in the country. Thaksin came to power in the first year, Thailand's GDP will grow by 5.2%, exports and domestic consumption booming, the stock market in early 2003, Thailand has risen by 67% in urban real estate reached the 1997 Asian financial crisis never happened prosperity. So even he has terrible corruption problem he still good for Thai economic growth. So the corruption is not always

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