We usually consider it progress when a country begins to shift from an autocratic to a democratic form of government …. However, the introduction of elections and other early trappings of democracy often has the perverse effect of exacerbating … democracy and capitalism--is to move to a governance structure based on impersonal rules that apply in the same way to everyone …

. Perfect democracy, where current members of the government do not have an incumbency advantage or special powers, always leads … to the emergence of the most competent government. However, any deviation from perfect democracy destroys this result … least competent government can persist forever in office. Moreover, a greater degree of democracy may lead to worse …

competitive (ideal democracy). Leaders are constrained by the threat of "entry" or their ability to tax (or both), so that regimes … and other policies designed to promote democracy may actually have the unintended consequences of discouraging political …

, an opposing view is that dissatisfaction with government performance may cause deeper dissatisfaction with democracy even …Beyond its immediate impact on public health and the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic has put democracy under stress …. While a common view is that people should blame the government rather than the political system for bad crisis management …

cannot be internalized though government subsidies. This paper describes a mechanism that transfers fiscal externalities from … the government to private parties. Such transfers generate incentives within the private sector to reduce inefficiencies …