Democracy and Economic Growth

Does economic growth go hand in hand with a strong democratic regime?  There is a theory attributed to the late 1950s-70s known in political science as "Waves of  Democratization"where political scientists not only examined the idea of political revolution but also Economic revolution that may come with it. A political system that leans towards being more democratic is very much in line with the concept of being a free market, whereas the opposite is thought true for autocratic, closed, communist regimes in that they tend to be more centralized, controlled economies. However to say that the aforementioned ideas are true for all cases is an overstatement, this is an idea that requires attention from both economists and political scientists and we have had varying opinions from both.

Japan and South Korea are the two countries with the highest GDP in South Asia and both are part of this five decade long push towards democratization. India, whose economy has doubled since the 1980s, is also the latest push towards democratization and lots of economists have predicted that India is rapidly on its way to being the worlds next superpower Economically speaking in the current century. IS economic growth related to democratization? Causation may not always imply correlation. In fact there are many who think that autocratic regimes may in fact cause more development given they follow certain policys. Paul Collier argues that South Korea has developed as a result of its very long association with autocracy up until the 1990s and that their homogeneous society is a cause of that. He argues that democratic and economic growth in the developing world is more prevalent in societies that have a more diverse pool of ethnicities. India is one such example, South Korea is not. Collier also argues that China (the one outlier with his theory) has developed because its economy functions more like several small controlled states over a more giant area. There is also the question of what drives economic growth in these rapidly growing economies, India or example has doubled its GDP since 1980 with its primary focus being the service industry whereas Chinas GDP has grown by 7 times its 1980 level with its primary focus lying out on industries. Even further still is the ida that it is not democracy that causes economic growth but the opposite. Does Economic growth cause democracy? Robert Barro is an economist who has done extensive research in the developing world and has found that economic development is directly related to democratization and not the opposite. What do you all think? Is democracy championing economic growth or the opposite?