The democratic transition

Fabrice Murtin and Romain Wacziarg

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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)
Date: 2014-06
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03460288
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Published in Journal of Economic Growth, 2014, 19 (2), pp.141 - 181. ⟨10.1007/s10887-013-9100-6⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: The democratic transition (2014)
Working Paper: The Democratic Transition (2011)
Working Paper: The Democratic Transition (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03460288

DOI: 10.1007/s10887-013-9100-6

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