The paper sets out to consider the opinion which, at its bluntest, suggests that one should not work (in educational development) in a country which does not respect the principles of a liberal democracy, which has a poor reputation in terms of human rights and or has an autocratic government. The paper argues that such an opinion must rest on some sort of consequentialist balance sheet of the actual and anticipated consequences of committing to such work or declining to do so – and this takes it into some of the problems of applying such an equation. The paper also invites caution in the assessments that westerners make of countries portrayed as a ‘undemocratic’ and the importance of taking into account, for example, history, trajectory and context.