Democracy, inclusion and fiscal discipline

Some of the sheen has undoubtedly come off the Washington consensus around liberal democracies and free markets.* Political gridlock in the US has invited growing commentary about what makes democracies dysfunctional. And as China's stature in the global economy has grown, voices about the merits of the Beijing model of state-led capitalism with restricted political participation have also become louder. But whatever the infirmities or inconveniences of democratic forms of government, I believe that it is no longer possible to roll back the momentum of one very powerful global trend.

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