In my opinion, one of the most important flow of development policy is the focus on building a society and especially a nation-state on the model of Western Europe in completely different settings.

One has to remember that at the time of colonialism, Europeans were describing the societies they were encountering as uncivilized. Yes this is 100% not politically correct but it worths looking at what this notion of uncivilized means.

For sure, it was an easy way to justify the ruling of vast territories and peoples, and get voted credits from governments who were advocating for freedom, rule of law and/or equality in the motherland (think of France and Britain), but there maybe was something truly genuine there.

Under the world civilization, the Europeans were meaning too the way that people interact with each other (exactly the first paragrath depicted by Pr Deaton), and it is true that in many country they colonized people were not acting in the same "civilized" ways that modern Europe was willing to establish.

This fact remains broadly true in many parts of the worlds and especially in fast and not so fast developing countries.

I live in the Philippines for 7 years (after having travelled Africa and a good chunk of Southeast Asia), it goes without saying that Filipinos have not the same sense of Public Service, Public Space than I do. In many senses, they are not a "civilized" people, not as Europeans. They will serve their clan before they will do their duty as a citizen, clearly. That means, that whatever laws you vote, whatever aid you provide, as long they don't decide to become citizens, they will not be in a position to use the tools of the State to improve their societies.

Therefore, Education is a must, but education of the Elite so they come to understand the needs of the peoples and act accordingly.

We too often forget to remember that the Enlightenment was led by the Elites of Europe and their will for progress, for so long that the Elites of poor countries will think only of their mere interest, progress will not come.



And then, you need to think of democracy.

Democracy was depicted by the ancient greeks as a terrible form of government because it leads to tyranny.

History of countries like the Philippines or Indonesia show that democracy can lead to plundering and countries not progressing as fast as least democratic nearby neighbors (think Singapore). Why?

One of the most reason is that in a democratic country, the struggle for power is constant since elections are always a couple of years down the road AND the leader has a limited time to plunder as much as possible for the wealth of his clan and to campaign for the next election.



Do I have a solution, maybe not, but is electoral democracy one, I don't think so