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Originally Posted by Yakk
It can be. Democratic capitalism generates a hell of alot of money and wealth.
I'd rather bribe a dictator than blow up the city he is hiding in. Its cost, in terms of lives, wealth and currency, is so much cheaper it isn't funny.
As an example, look at GB's royal family. They are richer now than they where at the height of their pre-constitutional monarchy power.
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There can be alot more wealth generated, but what wealth there is will be more heavily spread out. In most dictatorships, the majority of the wealth is either in the hands of the dictator or his supporters. ANd if enough of the supporters have sufficient wealth, you will usually have more of a oligarchy situation.
And the main reason the royal family can be considered richer is because they are no longer footing the bill for the country, and have become more like an amusement park. If the royals hadn't squandered their wealth on building their army, they probably would have had more pure material wealth.
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Even a benevolent dictator isn't smart enough to run a society nearly efficiently enough to develop the amount of wealth a democratic capitalist society can.
Unless, of course, the benevolent dictator chooses to run the society as a democratic capitalist one, or some reasonably close approximation thereof.
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The dictator wouldn't have to run his country like a democracy, just keep capitalist principles. Make sure that the citizens get enough of the pie to not be too discontent, but not enough to ever challenge your authority. This can be seen in Nazi Germany and somewhat in communist China.
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I don't know of a means of motivating people that works as broadly (on as many people) and as accurately (towards the 'common good') as the profit motive. Both Democracy and Capitalism give people with the lust for power something not completely destructive -- and usually productive -- to do.
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I think you might be linking democracy too closely to capitalism. I'm not saying this ideal non-democracy has ever existed, or even will ever exsist. But it just seems logical that if a government was run by one or a small group of people with absolute authority, they could react more effectively to any problems faced by their nation. The flipside is that if they are wrong on a decision, the consequences could be much worse as well.