Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to model the human development potentials of democratization, demilitarization, industrialization, and family planning that different developing regions tap and forego. Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop and estimate a human development system that is built around economic, political, and social dimensions and program a system dynamic model to simulate the effects of democratization, demilitarization, industrialization, and family planning. Findings – The findings strongly indicate that the socioeconomic and political development effects associated with industrial development and family planning far outweigh those associated with democratization and demilitarization. Originality/value – With this study the authors hope to stimulate a discussion with the goal of achieving a better understanding of the economic and political transmission mechanisms of democratization, demilitarization, industrialization, and family planning. To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to assess these developmental parameters quantitatively in a comparative economic perspective.