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Under many nondemocratic systems, good policy is bad politics, and bad policy helps leaders stay in office. The result is poorer performance in terms of economic growth.
About the Authors
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Fifteen years after the wave of democratization crested in Africa, the region still grapples with an economic malaise that is disappointing popular expectations and undermining the legitimacy of electoral regimes.