Past international development policy towards poor countries, argue Halperin (a senior vice president of the Center for American Progress and director of the Open Society Policy Center), Siegle (an associate director at the Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector at the U. of Maryland), and Weinstein (director of programs, Robin Hood Foundation), have been based on the idea that autocracy is more capable of promoting economic development than democracy. They present research refuting this idea and draw policy recommendations from it, suggesting that enhancing global security is tied to promoting democracy, that donors must recognize that economic reforms must be measured against the social and political circumstances of the country in order to avoid political backlash, and that democracy should be a central guiding criterion in determining development assistance. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less