Economic development and democracy : An electoral connection
(2019) In European Journal of Political Research 58(1). p.292-314- Abstract
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... (More)
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.
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- author
- Knutsen, Carl Henrik ; Gerring, John ; Skaaning, Svend Erik ; Teorell, Jan LU ; Maguire, Matthew ; Coppedge, Michael and Lindberg, Staffan I. LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- democracy, democratisation, economic development, elections, modernisation
- in
- European Journal of Political Research
- volume
- 58
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 23 pages
- publisher
- Wiley
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85060104008
- ISSN
- 0304-4130
- DOI
- 10.1111/1475-6765.12282
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c0f9155a-239c-4cb3-a0c2-6bdf4dc663d0
- date added to LUP
- 2019-01-28 13:04:15
- date last changed
- 2022-04-25 20:28:13
@article{c0f9155a-239c-4cb3-a0c2-6bdf4dc663d0, abstract = {{<p>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.</p>}}, author = {{Knutsen, Carl Henrik and Gerring, John and Skaaning, Svend Erik and Teorell, Jan and Maguire, Matthew and Coppedge, Michael and Lindberg, Staffan I.}}, issn = {{0304-4130}}, keywords = {{democracy; democratisation; economic development; elections; modernisation}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{1}}, pages = {{292--314}}, publisher = {{Wiley}}, series = {{European Journal of Political Research}}, title = {{Economic development and democracy : An electoral connection}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12282}}, doi = {{10.1111/1475-6765.12282}}, volume = {{58}}, year = {{2019}}, }