I think this conversation is happening at an incoherent level of generalization. "Democracy" is not good or bad for development. It's too broad a thing to be a treatment. That's like saying "drugs are good for curing cancer". Which ones? Which cancer? 1/

Similarly claims that democracies broadly redistribute. In the US, for decades, because of the disinflationary effects of inequality and a culture of "temporarily embarrassed millionaires", electoral incentives have tilted more towards concentration than redistribution. /fin