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Economic development and democracy: An electoral connection
Author(s) -
KNUTSEN CARL HENRIK,
GERRING JOHN,
SKAANING SVENDERIK,
TEORELL JAN,
MAGUIRE MATTHEW,
COPPEDGE MICHAEL,
LINDBERG STAFFAN I.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6765.12282
Subject(s) - democracy , extant taxon , collective action , political economy , political science , power (physics) , positive economics , sociology , economics , politics , law , physics , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , biology
Scholars continue to debate whether economic development affects regime type. This article argues that a clear relationship exists between development and the electoral component of democracy, but not – or at least less so – between development and other components of broader understandings of democracy. This is so because development enhances the power resources of citizens and elections provide a focal point for collective action. The theory is tested with two new datasets – Varieties of Democracy and Lexical Index of Electoral Democracy – that allow us to disaggregate the concept of democracy into meso‐ and micro‐level indicators. Results of these tests corroborate the theory: only election‐centred indicators are robustly associated with economic development. This may help to account for apparent inconsistencies across extant studies and shed light on the mechanisms at work in a much‐studied relationship. Further analysis shows that development affects electoral democracy by reducing electoral fraud, election violence and vote buying.