THE DEMOCRACY CONSENSUS: Is there an alternative to the ‘Beijing Consensus’ developing in democracies of the South?

The international financial crisis of 2008 devastated economies across the world and undermined the developing world's faith in Western models of capitalism. In the subsequent vacuum, many are looking to the authoritarian 'Chinese model' as an alternative. However, China is not the only developing country which has achieved high levels of growth in the past two decades. There are several large, important emerging democracies in the developing world. Prominent amongst these are India, Brazil, and South Africa, the subjects of the CDE project. Through exploration of their history, economics and politics, this project seeks to discover the elements of another possible road to growth and development: the democracy 'model' in developing countries. In the context of democratic institutions, the three countries have made considerable progress with respect to growth and innovation, combatting poverty, and developing new approaches to dealing with corruption. The project will focus on influencing global policy debates. A short accessible report on 'the democracy model' will be written and then launched in major world cities. Subsequently, workshops will be convened in other emerging democracies to discuss the relevance of our findings for these countries. A second report will capture the lessons from these other countries.