Democracy, Authoritarian Capitalism, and China: Crash Course World History #230

In which John Green teaches you about the end of World History, and the end of the world as we know it, kind of. For the last hundred years or so, it seemed that one important ingredient for running an economically successful country was a western-style democratic government. All evidence pointed to the idea that capitalist representative democracies made for the best economic outcomes. It turns out that isn’t the only way to succeed. In the last 40 years or so, authoritarian capitalism as it’s practiced in places like China and Singapore has been working really, really well. John is going to look at these systems and talk about why they work, and he’s even going to make a few predictions about the future. Also, thanks for watching this series. It has been amazingly fun to create, and we appreciate all of you.

Citation 1: John Micklethwait & Adrian Woolridge. The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State. Penguin, New York 2014 p. 68
Citation 2: Han Fook Kwang, ed., Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas. Times Edition: 1997 p194
Citation 3: Quoted in Micklethwait & Woolridge, p155
Citation 4: Micklethwait & Woolridge, p159