The surest indicator of a great nation is represented not by the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists, but by the general welfare of its people.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statemen

The research study by IMF in 2018 concluded that a nation is well recognised and admired by other countries for the work done towards the welfare of the people. The same research has pointed out countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia for lifting up many people out of the poverty. The general welfare is one of the most important criteria to point the greatness of a nation since focus towards welfare had been pursued relentlessly since ancient times when few people especially monarchs enjoyed unrestrained wealth and liberty while others suffered. While there is no reservation that nation is esteemed because of the generosity towards welfare, there is a reason to believe that rulers and scientists had initially started the process of welfare which was pursued by successive generations in the form of elected Governments. For example the welfare programmes were initiated by representative of Monarchs of Britain in Singapore and Malaysia, thus the welfare is credited to them.

However true it may be the case that rulers and scientists devised welfare programmes to balance the prosperity between ruling and working class, but the pattern was not same in all imperialist nations. The rulers in such imperialist countries actually plundered the public money through extortion or war or deceit. And moreover, the severity of their measures was such that their successive generations were even had insatiable desire for greed, lust, sloth and wrath that made these countries impoverished. For example, India was ruled by Mughals for more than 3 centuries and all these rulers were famous and admired everywhere for their effective management of such a large country. Rulers such as Shahzahan and Aurangzeb made India the world strongest economy in late 18th century by integrating India with rest of the world and establishing trade routes. However, the plight of Indian citizen was no more than of a beggar. Therefore, rulers were known for their achievements but India was known for being a poor country.

Contrary to the above paragraph, one such argument that supports the idea that rulers and scientists reflect the greatness of a nation is that the policies approved by the rulers and implemented by the scientists in their countries actually encouraged the industrial growth and urged welfare. The rulers devise policies as per the needs of their pupils and scientists by working towards welfare through their research and innovation solved problems of unprecedented nature and brought in welfare indirectly. For example, Sweden has been the world number 1 country for filing the highest number of patents for last 10 years since 2006. The patents were ranging from medicines, computer science, financial inclusion technologies, agriculture farming, and supply chain technologies etc. Thus, citizen, ranges from agriculture labourers, patients, and industrialists, of Sweden were benefited by the work done by these scientists. Therefore, rulers and scientists made Sweden a great nation along with the focus on welfare of its citizen.

Another argument that buttresses the thought that rulers urge the welfare of a nation is that rulers, if worked through the written constitution or legislation, can achieve both, i.e., made their nation known worldwide and raise the welfare for their pupils. As the trend has been changed from monarchs to elected Government keeping the position of monarchs as de-facto head of the State, the welfare efforts taken by them in their time such as to ensure equality, economic growth, better health and education have been continued by the elected Government. For example, as per the 2018 report of World Bank, the world has witnessed economic growth, though at varying pace, but European countries have managed to balance the division of growth between different classes and achieved comprehensive development across all sectors including industry, welfare and military. For instance, the rate of income inequality is the lowest among all industrialised nations. Therefore, the rulers of European nations had initiated these measured and measures were continued by their elected Government.

While concluding, as can be seen from the above paragraphs, although it is true that some rulers, though they were powerful and rich, were infamous for made countries impoverished and never worked towards welfare, thus these rulers cannot be exemplified as an indication of these countries. On the other hand, some rulers and scientists made their country prosperous by working towards all sections of the society and the successive elected Government pursued the unfinished work started by their rulers, thus, brought in welfare for all.