Democracy- the system of government, which grants people the power to rule either directly or through elected representatives. Currently there are 123 democracies in the world out of all 192 countries. Democracy is the system, which is believed to bring not only economic growth, but also peace for both internal and external communities. Thereby, more and more countries have transitioned or are transitioning to this governmental system, called democracy. However, there are some extremely powerful states that still do not search for any governmental system even close to democracy. In fact, these states are paradoxical antagonism of the belief that democratic regime is necessary for economic success. So is the democracy really the answer then?

According to Maps of World research, out of top ten richest countries in the world only half are democracies. This may seem like an equal split, however, one should consider the fact that there are 123 democracies in the world while only 69 non-democracies. In other words, only 4.1% of all the democratic countries in the world were able to make it into the top ten list, while for non-democratic countries the percentage is a lot higher- 7.2%. On the other hand, only 4.3% of non-democratic countries got a place in the top ten poorest countries list, while 5.7% of democratic states. This shows that democracy is not necessarily the answer when it comes to economic success.

Now let’s take a look at Forbes’ list of happiest and unhappiest countries in the world. Interestingly, top ten happiest countries in the world are all full democracies, while 30% of top ten saddest countries are non-democracies. This is to show that citizens of the majority of the democratic states do feel confident about regime vs. citizens of non-democratic states do not.

So is democracy really the answer? It depends on what is the question. Economic development does seem to be stronger and faster in non-democratic countries; however, the happiness of the people is higher in democratic states. What is more valuable is up to the states to decide, but for now, even without bringing much of economic growth, democracy gains more and more followers.