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Static societies tend to be rent-seekingsocieties in which there are strong pressuresplaced upon
governmentto redistributeincome towards politically powerful groups. To the extent that rapid
growth allows the dynamic elements in the society to achieve status and income independentlyof
the government,one could argue that economic growth and political freedom will be positively
correlated.10
Similarly, Pennar et al. suggest that growth leads to democracy because of the
impact of relative deprivationand the eventual impact of education on a populace
that demandspolitical and civil rights.11
As a small slice of the populationis enriched,the rest of the citizens agitate for their fair shot at
doing better,and such privilege is grantedonly in democracies.Then, too, rising incomes at first
go towardneeded goods and investment,then latertowardhighereducation.A more educatedpop-
ulation tends to demandpolitical and civil rights, and so democratizationbegins.12
464
Though experience shows that relatively poor countries can grow extraordinarilyrapidly when
they have a strong dictatorwho happens to have unusually good economic policies, such growth
lasts only for the ruling span of one or two dictators.It is no accident that the countriesthat have
reached the highest level of economic development and have enjoyed good performanceacross
generationsare all stable democracies.17
An economy will be able to reap all potential gains from investmentand from long-termtransac-
tions only if it has a governmentthat is believed to be both strong enough to last and inhibited
from violating individualrights to propertyand rights to contractenforcement....Interestingly,the
conditions that are needed to have the individualrights needed for maximum economic develop-
ment are exactly the same conditionsthat are needed to have a lasting democracy.18
465
tary exchange, but, more important,it encourages and conditions economic actors
(individualfirms and consumers)to behave as if economic freedomswill last. While
democraticgovernmentscan be overthrown,it is certainlyconceivablethat democra-
cy tends to reinforce commitmentto economic freedoms, which in turn contributes
to economic growth and development.21Recent empirical studies by Leblang and
Feng give credenceto this argument.22
Thus, one can find enough theoreticaljustification to supporteither of the posited
relationships between democracy and economic growth. We therefore propose an
empiricaltest using Grangercausal analysis.
466
Yt a.Y^t E PA joel,
i=1 i-=
x,=-
i=l
r/t-,i+Ci=l 6iYt-g+e2,
SC(q) 7Wn(2)+(ln7T)
where T is the sample size and 62 is the maximumlikelihood estimateof the residual
variance of the Granger equation with various lag order. The lag structure that
numerically minimizes the above equation is chosen as the optimal lag length.
Before continuing towardestimation,we set the minimum lag as one and the maxi-
mum lag of five due to the degrees of freedom. E-Views version 2.0 was used for
estimation.
467
Findings
Growth-->Democracy 11 34 % CostaRica,Egypt,Guatemala,India,
Israel,SouthKorea,Mexico,
Nicaragua,Thailand,Uruguay,
Venezuela
Democracy-->Growth 10 31 % Bolivia,Burma,Colombia,Ecuador,
El Salvador,Indonesia,Iran,
Paraguay,ThePhillippines,South
Afirica,
FeedbackRelationship 3 9% Chile,DominicanRepublic,Turkey
No Relationship 8 25 % Argentina,Brazil,Haiti,Honduras,
Pakistan,Panama,Peru,SriLanka
N-32
468
ship between economic development and democracy can not be generalized to all
developing countries. The contrasting findings between the two studies may have
resultedfrom the differencesin researchdesign (individuallongitudinalanalysis ver-
sus pooled time series), data set (Arat'sdata set versus Polity II), or variableopera-
tionalization(economic growthrate versus energy consumption).
In sum, based on our analysis of the democracy-growthrelationshipin thirty-two
developing countries, we are unable to provide a definitive statement about the
causal relationship between economic growth and the level of democracy. The
results of the Grangercausal analysis for each countryare reportedin Table2.
In this study,we set out to clarify the issue of the causal directionbetween democra-
cy and economic growth, since there does not seem to be a strong consensus regard-
ing the causal orderingof these two variables.Using a simple operationalizationof
democracy and economic growth rates in thirty-twodeveloping countries, we used
the direct Granger causality test to tease out the causal directions. Our empirical
results show that it is as likely that economic growth causes democracy as that
democracycauses economic growth. In short,we are back to squareone.
What are the implicationsof our findings for futureresearch?First and foremost,
fiuturestudies attemptingto tease out the casual relationshipbetween democracyand
economic growth should go beyond the simple operationalization of democracy.
Since we want to examine the causal relationshipbetween democracyand economic
growth at the most direct level, it is beyond our objective to pursuethe complexities
and nuances breaking down the operationalizationof democracy further.However,
futureworks in this area will need to provide a more complex operationalizationof
democracy.
Second, our mixed findings about the relationshipbetween democracy and eco-
nomic growth, based on a straightforwardoperationalizationof democracyand eco-
nomic growth, also point to the importanceof other contingentfactors in teasing out
the proper causal ordering of democracy and economic growth. These contingent
factors may include the timing of development, geophysical factors such as the
region, economic developmentstrategies(for example, exportpromotionand import
substitution), international political factors such as cold war alliances, domestic
institutionalfactors such as separateor unified powers systems and governmentsta-
bility, and world-systemposition.
It is plausiblethat these factors, either singly or in combination,have some effect
on the relationshipbetween democracy and economic growth. For example, coun-
tries have adopted different development strategies with varying results. In South
Korea and Taiwanthe wise adoption of an export-promotionstrategyhas been cred-
469
470
ited with the phenomenalgrowth rates of these two countries. It is logical, then, to
argue that adoption of different development strategies may have influenced their
respective economic growth prospects and also their experience with democracy.
Similarly,one can logically arguethat a countrythat was both firmly within the U.S.
cold war alliance and had great geostrategicvalue to the U.S. faced a differentmar-
ket access challenge than nonaligned countries. Countries in the U.S. camp often
benefited from special market access arrangementsto export products to the U.S.
Being partof the U.S. sphereof influence, however,could also conceivablyaffect the
level of democracyin these countries.Since the primaryfocus of our study was con-
fined to an explorationof the relationshipbetween democracyand economic growth,
we simply suggest these factors for futureresearch.
NOTES
An earlier version of this paper was presented to the annual meetings of Southern Political Science
Association, Norfolk, Virginia, November 5-8, 1997. The authorswould like to thankYi Feng and Tim
Powersfor helpful comments.
1. See Philips Cutright, "National Political Development: Measurement and Analysis," American
Sociological Review, 28 (1963), 253-64; Deane E. Neubauer, "Some Conditions of Democracy,"
AmericanPolitical Science Review, 61 (1967), 1002-9.
2. Samuel Huntington,The ThirdWave(Norman:University of OklahomaPress, 1991).
3. Kenneth A. Bollen, "Political Democracy and the Timing of Development," American
Sociological Review, 44 (1979), 572-87; John F. 0. Bilson, "Civil Liberty: An Econometric
Investigation," Kyklos, 35 (1982), 94-114; Kenneth A. Bollen and Robert A. Jackman, "Political
Democracy and the Size Distribution of Income,"American Sociological Reviewu48 (1985), 468-79;
Kenneth A. Bollen, "Liberal Democracy: Validity and Method Factors in Cross-National Measures,"
AmericanJournal of Political Science, 37 (1993), 1207-30; LarrySirowy and Alex Inkeles, "The Effects
of Democracy on Economic Growth and Inequality:A Review,"Studies in ComparativeInternational
Development, 25 (1990), 126-57; John F. Helliwell, "Empirical Linkages between Democracy and
Economic Growth," British Journal of Political Science, 24 (1994), 225-48; Adam Przeworski and
Fernando Limongi, "Political Regimes and Economic Growth,"Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7
(1993), 51-69; Mancur Olson, "Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development," American Political
Science Review, 87 (1993), 567-76; Ross E. Burkhart and Michael S. Lewis-Beck, "Comparative
Democracy: The Economic Development Thesis," American Political Science Review, 88 (1994),
903-10; John B. Londregan and Keith T. Poole, "Does High Income Promote Democracy?," World
Politics, 49 (1994), 1-30; David Leblang, "Property Rights, Democracy and Economic Growth,"
Political Research Quarterly, 49 (1996), 5-26; David Leblang, "Political Democracy and Economic
Growth: Pooled Cross-Sectional and Time-Series Evidence," British Journal of Political Science, 27
(1997), 453-72; Yi Feng, "Democracy, Political Stability and Economic Growth,"British Journal of
Political Science, 27 (1997), 391-418.
4. Seymour M. Lipset, "Some Social Requisites of Democracy,"AmericanPolitical Science Review,
53 (1959), 69-105; MartinNeedler, "Political Development and Socioeconomic Development:The Case
of LatinAmerica,"AmericanPolitical Science Review, 62 (1967), 889-97.
5. Olson, "Dictatorship";MancurOlson, Rise and Decline of Nations (New Haven:Yale University
Press, 1982); Przeworskiand Limongi; Leblang,"PropertyRights";Lebang, "PoliticalDemocracy."
471
472
28. Robert Pindyck and Daniel Rubinfeld,EconometricModels and Economic Forecasts (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1991), p. 216.
29. John R. Freeman, "GrangerCausality and the Time Series Analysis of Political Relationship,"
American Journal of Political Science, 27 (1983), 337-58; C. W. J. Granger, "Investigating Causal
Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods," Econometrica, 37 (1969), 424-38;
Peter Kennedy,A Guide to Econometrics(Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press, 1991), p. 68.
30. The concept of causality used by the Grangercausality test is empirical ratherthan theoretical. It
requirestwo conditions for X to cause Y: changes in X must precede changes in Y, and X must help pre-
dict Y. Since this concept is slightly different from what we usually mean by causality, we use the term
"Grangercause." Fordetailed information,see Freeman.
31. Ibid., p. 346.
32. Gideon Schwartz,"Estimatingthe Dimension of a Model,"Annals of Statistics, 6 (1978), 461-4;
John Geweke and Richard Meese, "Estimating Regression Models of Finite but Unknown Order,"'
InternationalEconomic Review,22 (1981), 55-70.
33. Arat, Democracyand HumanRights.
34. Lev S. Gonick and Robert M. Rosh, "The StructuralDeterminants of the World Economy on
National Political Development,"ComparativePolitical Studies, 21 (1988), 171-99.
35. Burkhartand Lewis-Beck
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