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Reassessing the relationship between elections and democratization

Bibliographic Data

ID6297438
AuthorsNam Kyu Kim (0000-0003-0621-4192, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume41
Issue3
Pages305-320
Publication date2020-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0192-5121 • E-ISSN: 1460-373X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0192512119846144
OpenAlexW4231841595
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited36

Do elections improve a country’s prospects for democratization? The theory of democratization by elections proposes that reiterated multiparty elections foster gradual institutional changes leading to progress toward democracy. Edgell et al. provide the most systematic evidence for this theory, but substantial disagreements remain among scholars studying the effects of authoritarian elections on democratization. In this study, I reassess the relationship between elections and democratization. In doing so, I account for the temporal structure of democratic qualities that are highly persistent. When I control for the dynamics of democratic qualities by adding a lag (or lags) of the dependent variable, the democratizing effects of repeated elections disappear; indeed, most evidence indicates a negative relationship between elections and democratization. This finding calls into question the causal role of elections in the process of democratization and demonstrates the importance of modeling the persistent nature of democracy in exploring the effect of a variable on democratization

Authoritarianism · Democracy · Democratization · Development economics · Economic system · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Social Capital and Networks

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Unique citing works1
Citations per year0,25
Citation span2022 - 2022 (1)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1
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