Afghanistan, Democracy, and GDP

[TheCurmudgeon]

vary based on what a given populace in the given area had for expectations of "normal" conditions relative to their location and/or social standing.

Aren't social expectations almost as important an indicator of acceptance for a given action as what the result of the action ends up being?

JMO but in large part yes and in small but important part no.

Expectations of the citizens play the largest part in determining if a democracy will exist. If the people are only worried about survival on a day to day basis they are not going to be interested in elections. That is a vast oversimplification but it gets to the point that a number of factors have to be in place before the general population starts to believe that democracy is worth the effort.

Econimics matter becuase the economic conditions of a country play a large part in determining what services the government can provide (at least through a central government scheme). If the government cannot provide basic services because there is no economic system beyond a simple agricultural barter system then I don't see that any modern central government (liberal democracy) can survive. If the central government cannot provide the police, schools, electricity, water that are needed then some other more local entity will fill that void.

Going back to what the citizens consider "normal", that may be a local warlord who takes a portion of what they make and provide them limited security (at least security from other warloards). That is all they can expect because that is all anyone can realistically provide.