Equity via democracy

Geoffrey Horne’s citation of China in his argument (Letters, Dec 4) that less democracy is better for ‘‘rational planning’’ omits important consequences for citizen majorities.

Studies cited by Inter-Parliamentary Union show that functional democracies are not only best at self-correction but also at producing equitable outcomes. Sure, countries lacking human rights for all – and mechanisms to deliver services equitably – produce higher GDP-assessed growth rates. And centrally planned economies like China can pour resources into infrastructure more rapidly than ones providing checks and balances on behalf of the common good.

Functional democracies depend on high participation rates, plus feedback using information free-flows – currently problematic with the collapse of newspapers’ financial models, decreases in mainstream media use and lack of compulsory citizenship education.

However, dysfunctional two-party systems, with parliaments increasingly unrepresentative of general populations, are not progress.

The value of growth that ‘‘raises all boats’’, plus four-year terms and reform of protocols in how minority governments are formed, are still better than both inequity and short-termism.

In 2015, my company constructed 10 lessons on democracy to upskill 275 MPs keen to restore Africa’s second democracy. In the 1970s it disintegrated into socialist autocracy. It is still IT accessible at ‘‘Somali School of Government’’, and I recommend its scientific analysis.

Steve Liddle, Napier