Is the life only and only about development, if the answer is yes, well then the rule of governance would certainly be autocratic rule, but if life you want is based on justice, where people are ready to listen to your concerns and they get addressed, where there is respect for human life and values, where there are more stake holders than just the government in the betterment of the state, where the state does not take its populace for granted and keep taking them for a ride without any counter checks in the system and much more, in that case democracy is the way to go.
Are all autocratic ruled countries well developed, there are many examples which suggest otherwise and where even the basic necessity of life are not met, generalizing wont help, there are good and bad in both the systems, imagine a communist china trying their hands with capitalism which should be a proof enough of how if you pick up good from others helps you. Question is more about who is heading the government, at what time and with what set of people, with what kind of majority if it’s a democracy and if there are all healthy indicators then there is no stopping anyone even in a democratic rule where you end up getting a complete package.
It all had to boil down to china India in the end but then no harm if sensibilities are maintained.
Each time one makes a comparison between India and china, inevitably you look at the dates when the reform process was started and there clearly is a 13 year advantage in favor of china and that advantage has been maintained till date. Let us compare today’s India with what china was doing 10years back, let us say in 1999.
gdp figures 1999: PRC – 1000b usd, India – 477b usd
exchange rate 1999 – PRC – 8.9/usd, India – 43/usd
gdp figures 2009: PRC – 4300b usd, India – 1250b usd
exchange rate 2009: PRC – 6.7/usd, India – 47-48/usd
today’s gdp as per 1999’s exchange rate:
PRC: (4300*6.7)/8.9 = 3200b usd
India: (1250*47-48)/43 = 1366 – 1395b usd
In the last one decade India has grown some where between 2.86-2.92 times as compared to 3.20 times for the prc. Is India really doing as badly as some would like to presume and portray (mind you on this very forum I have done a comparative analysis for both the countries since 1980 and even in that case the differentiating factor remained between 10-13 years), as I said india has been successfully able to maintain that gap of 10-13 years even though we happen to be a democratic rule. In real growth rate terms which really matter, china has done better without a doubt but to say a democratic process completely lags behind would be wrong, though yes if we purely focus on statistics, there is a lot that goes for begging and a lot of things if done timely would have certainly yielded better results.