The recent Annual Democracy Forum 2014 co-hosted by Botswana and International IDEA has been another fresh look at the old debate on the link between democracy and development.
One could claim from time to time that there is a weak connection or even disconnect between the two which tend to hold reasonable in the short run. However, the overwhelming majority face some undeniable empirical evidence of strong connection between development and democracy in particular in the long run. The question these days is not so much the link between the two, but rather the nature and kind of interrelation between the two.
The debates in Gaborone also revealed that the state and the quality of democracy that impact development — and vice versa — also matter and should be the subject of further investigation.
About the author
Luvsantseren Orgil
Luvsantseren Orgil is Mongolia's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva and ambassador to Switzerland. A career diplomat, he was a former foreign policy adviser to the Mongolian president as a specialist in international relations. Orgil has also worked for the U.N. office in Tajikistan and has experience in the private sector.
