The Democratic Transition

Romain Wacziarg and Fabrice Murtin

No 8599, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Over the last two centuries, many countries experienced regime transitions toward democracy. We document this democratic transition over a long time horizon. We use historical time series of income, education and democracy levels from 1870 to 2000 to explore the economic factors associated with rising levels of democracy. We find that primary schooling, and to a weaker extent per capita income levels, are strong determinants of the quality of political institutions. We find little evidence of causality running the other way, from democracy to income or education.

Keywords: Democracy; Modernization; Human capital; Gmm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 N30 N40 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-cwa, nep-his, nep-lab and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Journal Article: The democratic transition (2014)
Working Paper: The democratic transition (2014)
Working Paper: The Democratic Transition (2011)
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