Democratic transition, The: a study of the causality between income and the Gastil democracy index

Arbeitspapier

The paper considers the transformation of the political system as countries pass through the Grand Transition from a poor developing country to a wealthy developed country. In the process most countries change from an authoritarian to a democratic political system. This is shown by using the Gastil democracy index from Freedom House. First, the basic pattern of correlations reveals that a good deal of the short- to medium-run causality appears to be from democracy to income. Then a set of extreme biogeographic instruments is used to demonstrate that the long-run causality is from income to democracy. The long-run result survives various robustness tests. We show how the Grand Transition view resolves the seeming contradiction between the long-run and the short- to medium-run effects.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Kiel Working Paper ; No. 1459

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; History of Economic Thought since 1925: Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
• Subject: Paths of development ; democracy ; biogeography ; Demokratisierung ; Entwicklungsstufe ; Sozialprodukt ; Schätzung ; Welt

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Paldam, Martin ; Gundlach, Erich
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
• (where): Kiel
• (when): 2008

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/24853
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET