Abstract
We first survey theoretical arguments and recent quantitative studies on the relationship between economic development and autocratization and thereafter present a novel analysis, which offers hitherto unmatched empirical coverage. Our investigation examines whether the level of economic or short-term economic growth is related to regimes experiencing autocratization, either as measured by downturns on a continuous democracy measure or as status change on a categorical measure from polyarchy, electoral democracy, or multi-party autocracy, respectively, to lower-level categories. Our results indicate (with some deviations) that economic development bolsters political regimes against autocratization. Moreover, poor, short-term economic performance is significantly related to autocratization with one exception; high-quality democracies (polyarchies) tend to be very stable regardless of their economic performance.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization |
| Editors | Aurel Croissant, Luca Tomini |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Place of publication | Abingdon |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Publication date | 1 Jan 2024 |
| Pages | 79-93 |
| Chapter | 6 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781032308333 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781040040188 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2024 |