ARTICLE: “Will Democracy Make You Happy?” by Eric Weiner, Foreign Policy, March/April 2008, p. 57.

Simple stuff but wonderful point: people get generous when they’re happy and selfish when they’re not. If you want political pluralism (the ultimate in generosity), make people economically happy first. Democracy, as I like to say, is a dish best served cold. Good example: fairly democratic Eastern Europe not as happy as booming but authoritarian China. Not rocket science but simply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If economics are roughly equal, then democracy is a happiness boost, but you have to get all such economics roughly equal first. When people cite culture as the real roadblock, all they really cite is the time-lapse involved with encouraging abundance. So no, if you’ve been poor forever and your conservative culture is built around surviving that poverty, you’re probably not “ready” for democracy. But the abundance-changing-culture dynamic is a lot faster than most people think. Poor countries tend to be very young countries, so the generational turnover is rapid: fast forward a bit and pretty soon a big chunk of your people can’t even remember the bad old times, much less adhere to the accompanying bad old customs/rules.