Britain should have a Freedom Minister

Has liberal democracy lifted people out of poverty? To a casual observer, the answer is unequivocally yes. One part of the world – the industrialised democratic northern half – is both richer, and healthier than the (historically undemocratic) South or East. Coincidence?
 
The West’s success may be a function of north Europe’s temperate climate, cultural mores shaped on the windswept British isles and European plains, the competition spurred by centuries of warfare, the invention of modern banking, the head-start provided by inventors, colonial conquests and possibly even the ideas and ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Judeo-Christian faith.

But many other regions had similar in-puts. Perhaps the West was just blessed by better leaders, thinkers and entrepreneurs. Or it colonised as opposed to being colonised. What is sure is that other regions did not have a liberalising movement, which eventually created modern-day liberal democracy.

Yet the development community – from NGOs to DfiD officials – seem to think that democracy and development are completely unrelated.