Democracy and Development: A Critical Analysis of the Nexus in Malawi and Rwanda

The question whether democracy is the best system of governance that expedites development is one that has not been settled and continues to gain traction in academic debates in the Twenty-First century. Using descriptive and inferential statistics, particularly two-sample variable t-test, this paper analyzes parametric data collected from databases of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), The World Bank, The United Nations, and Transparency International to compare 2004 – 2019 trends of development progress between Malawi as a democratic country and Rwanda as a nondemocratic country to contribute to the ongoing debates. The findings do not support democracy as a development catalyst. The study does not generalize its findings to all democracies and nondemocracies. However, as much as the findings cannot be generalized, they point to the need for further examination of the nexus between democracy and development. Areas recommended for future research are specified accordingly.