Abstract
The scope of this paper is to examine the main economic, social and political dimensions of development worldwide. More specifically, our analysis focuses on the study of the links between the levels of income per capita, the level of perceived corruption, the degree of human development, the extent of government effectiveness and the quality of the political system as the main variables describing the level of overall development in a country. As we expected, we find that all these factors are very important determinants of the scale of overall development, since combinations of these factors according to their values determine clusters of countries with different patterns of overall development. As a result, an effective policy towards development demands integrated strategies that incorporate efforts for low corruption and high income, human development and government effectiveness levels. However, in order these strategies to be sustainable in the long run they should be associated with democratic transformations. If democracy is not consolidated and the political system is not characterized as free, overall development cannot be effectively achieved and especially maintained at the long run basis, in spite of any currently prevailing high income levels.
Highlights
In recent empirical work development is mainly measured and evaluated from its economic point of view, while social and political developmental aspects are mostly underestimated for several reasons
The highest correlation coefficient has been found for the relationship between GNI and human development index (HDI) possibly indicating that the gross national income can be considered as a proxy for the level of socioeconomic development in the countries examined in the present study
The above analysis has highlighted that the level of economic development, the perception in the level of corruption, the degree of human development, the extent of government effectiveness and the quality of the existing political system, are very important dimensions that determine the overall developmental patterns worldwide
Summary
In recent empirical work development is mainly measured and evaluated from its economic point of view, while social and political developmental aspects are mostly underestimated for several reasons. Economic figures as quantitative variables are measured in almost all countries with relative simple and widely acceptable indexes, such as income per capita, while social and political aspects of human action can only be successfully expressed by more complicated procedures on which generally there is no wider agreement. This difficulty should not be the reason for countries to reduce their concern for the social and political dimensions of overall development, as economic growth necessary is not a sufficient condition for the wealth of nations. This is not astonishing since social cohesion and democratic institutions help to discover and implement the appropriate solutions and to overcome economic problems
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
