From liberal economic policies to liberal political institutions? Democracy, development clusters and wellbeing

The period since the Washington Consensus has seen a gradual, though sometimes stuttering, growth in liberal political institutions that support free speech, open contests for power, and constraints on the arbitrary use of power. Meanwhile, economists and other social scientists have studied the interplay of economics and politics along alternative paths of development – paths associated with more or less solid underpinnings for a market economy and more or less peaceful resolutions of domestic conflict. Our chapter explores whether this research supports a consensus around the kind of political institutions, values, and norms that can produce flourishing economies and societies.