Thurow presented 3 lists in "Table6.1 The Richest Countries Per Capital in 1870 and 1988." He intended to show that it is difficult for a country to get rich. He was right. But the date he provided in the book also suggests something contrary to commonly held belief concerning the relationship between Western democracy and prosperity.
1. The richest countries in 1988 based on internal purchasing power in descending order:
United Arab Emirates, United States, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Luxembourg, Australia, Iceland, Kuwait, Sweden, West Germany, Finland, Japan, France, Denmark, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria.
2. The richest countries in 1988 based on external purchasing power in descending order are:
Switzerland, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, United States, West Germany, Canada, Luxembourg, France, Austria, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, New Zealand.
Judging from the above two lists, one is not difficult to reach the conclusion that democracy is correlated with prosperity. But then a light bulb went up. First of all, correlation is not causation. More important, one can also look at a similar list concerning the relative wealth of the countries at 1870.
3. The richest countries in 1870 in descending order are:
Australia, United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, United States, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, France, Argentina, Austria, Italy, Germany, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Portgual, Sweden, Chile
Compare the 1870 list with the 1988 lists, it is obvious that many rich countries in 1988 were already rich in 1870. Many of the rich countries are democracies in 1988. Were they equally democratic in 1870?
At 1870, Ireland, Australia,were still part of the United Kingdom. NewZealand's was declared a British dominion at 1907. Canada was independent in 1867, so its properity was not the results of democracy.
Napolean III of the Second France Empire had lost the Frano-Prussian war, the Third Republic was newly established.
How about Austria? Seems Austrians had a low opinion on democracy. ""When Paris sneeze," commented the Austrian Chancellor, Metternich, "Europe catches Cold." French-style democracy was a menance threatening monarch, Church, and property - the pillars of every thing he stood for." (EUROPE by Norman Davies)
In short, not many list 3 countries above were real democracies. Indeed, no European countries in list 3 allowed universal male suffrage in 1870 with Switzerland the only exception.
Again, correlation between democratic coutry and prosperous country is not causation. Many countries are rich today because they were already rich 100+ years ago.
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