Reviewing 40 years of hard, empirical data, from China and India to Chile and Iraq, the authors show that poor democracies beat poor autocracies in every economic measure. In addition, the authors offer dramatic evidence that democracies are less likely to fight each other and that terrorists more often find safe haven in authoritarian countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

Morton Halperin is one of America's most respected foreign policy analysts and served in the Clinton, Nixon, and Johnson administrations. He taught at Harvard and is currently the Senior Vice President of the Center for American Progress.
Joseph T. Siegle has done extensive research pn developing countries and is the Douglas Dillon Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Michael Weinstein is Director of Programs for the Robin Hood Foundation and publishes frequently on the editorial pages of The New York Times.

Prologue 1. Exposing a 50-Year-Old Myth 2. Democracy and Development: Setting the record right 3. Sustaining New Democracies 4. Democracy and Security 5. Making Development Safe for Democracy 6. Democracy as the Default Option 7. Bringing Democracy Into the Center of a Comprehensive Development Strategy 8. The Great Race Appendices Endnotes Bibliography About the Authors