Is Democracy a Normal Good? Evidence from Democratic Movements

Jenny Minier

Southern Economic Journal, 2001, vol. 67, issue 4, 996-1009

Abstract: A frequent assertion of economists and political scientists is that democracy is a normal good, or that higher incomes lead citizens to “desire” more democracy. This assertion, however, has been difficult to test directly. I introduce a data set of democratic movements, and use it to address the relationship between income and the demand for democracy. Logit analysis of the estimated probability that a democratic movement occurs in an authoritarian country suggests that this probability is increasing in income per capita up to a level of approximately $5000. Unlike previous results, this does not suggest that all countries will become democratic once they pass some income threshold.

Date: 2001
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https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.2001.tb00386.x

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:soecon:v:67:y:2001:i:4:p:996-1009

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