The Legatum Institute and its partner think tanks held the first workshop of the 'Democracy Consensus', a series of conferences and papers exploring the relationship between democracy and development.
The workshop was hosted by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in New Delhi and focussed on that relationship in the Indian context. The group discussed four important themes in conjunction with India’s democratic system: economic growth, poverty and inclusive growth, the innovation dividend, and corruption.
The Democracy Consensus is a partnership between the Legatum Institute and think tanks in South Africa (Centre for Development and Enterprise), India (Centre for Policy Research), and Brazil (Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade). The project aims to focus more attention on democracy and market capitalism in the developing world and to claim space for democratic voices from the South. To what extent are democratic politics a hindrance to rapid development? To what extent can democracy contribute to growth, especially inclusive growth?
[Read Hemal Shah's
blog for
India at LSE reporting from the workshop in Delhi]
The Delhi workshop will be followed by meetings in Johannesburg, South Africa (March), and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (May). Conference papers (on-going) and the final project report (early 2014) will be available on the Legatum Institute website.