I considered forwarding it to him, but he is extremely skeptical of data in this form.

To add to the examples above; what does ‘per capita income $2700+’ actually select for? Is it income, or is it Europeans? The second possibility is just a bit confounding…. The data, properly considered, provokes more study, (which I don’t have grants for) not conclusions.

Further, while I am short on geopolitical data, ‘autocracies above $2700′ sounds like China and Russia, both of which were recently communist.

In short, even if perfectly accurate, the article could be utterly misleading…or not, and it’s exceptionally hard to tell the difference.

Also, you do know the actual answer for ‘bringing democracy,’ right? Power/prestige/self-validation. These would be exactly the same if democracy actually worked, too.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by fbardamu: Overcoming Bias : Democracy Failings http://bit.ly/3XrarJ…

1) Is this a function of absolute wealth or relative wealth? If relative wealth, how does the West having more money reduce the rule of law elsewhere?

2) This is just a selection effect where cultures/institutions that were predisposed to democracy came to it first naturally and what we’re seeing now is cultures/institutions that are not so inclined having democracy grafted onto them?

2.1) Is there something about the geographical/historical situation in Europe or the U.S. that predisposed it to functional democracy?

These are all positive questions which I think ought to inform the normative one you asked, Robin.

We certainly don’t mean literal popular sovereignty democracy, where the people vote on policies.