"For decades, policies pursued by the U.S. and other industrialized nations towards the developing world have been based on a dirty little secret kept among policy experts: that democracy and poor countries don't mix. Turning this long-held view on its head, The Democracy Advantage makes a bold case that they do." "In this timely and path-breaking book. Morton H. Halperin, Joseph T. Siegle, and Michael M. Weinstein dismantle the conventional wisdom that democratic reforms are destabilizing and that the West must rely on authoritarian regimes in order to create a middle class that will support democracy."--Jacket.