Politics matter for human development.

Reducing poverty depends as much on whether poor people have political power as on their opportunities for economic progress. UN Report on Human Development 2002Democracy has proven to be the system of governance most capable of mediating and preventing conflict and of securing and sustaining well-being. By expanding people’s choices about how and by whom they are governed, democracy brings principles of participation and accountability to the process of human development.

http://www.undp.org/hdr2002/