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Cited by 1,983Political Conflict and GovernancePolitical Theory and DemocracyCorruption and Economic Development

Modernization: Theories and Facts

Przeworski, Adam, Limongi, Fernando·1997·World Politics
DOI 10.1353/wp.1997.0004
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Abstract

What makes political regimes rise, endure, and fall? The main question is whether the observed close relation between levels of economic development and the incidence of democratic regimes is due to democracies being more likely to emerge or only more likely to survive in the more developed countries. We answer this question using data concerning 135 countries that existed at any time between 1950 and 1990. We find that the level of economic development does not affect the probability of transitions to democracy but that affluence does make democratic regimes more stable. The relation between affluence and democratic stability is monotonic, and the breakdown of democracies at middle levels of development is a phenomenon peculiar to the Southern Cone of Latin America. These patterns also appear to have been true of the earlier period, but dictatorships are more likely to survive in wealthy countries that became independent only after 1950. We conclude that modernization need not generate democracy but democracies survive in countries that are modern.

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  • The level of modernity, operationalized as the natural log of GDP per capita, is a critical correlate of democratic survival.

    “The most important of these concerns the level of modernity, an association first showed by Lipset (1959) and demonstrated as a critical correlate of survival by Przeworski and Limongi (1997).”

    From Parties, Civil Society, and the Deterrence of Democratic Defection (2020) · cites this paper as Przeworski and Limongi (1997)

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Authors
Przeworski, A., & Limongi, F.
Affiliations
Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
Corresponding author
Limongi, Fernando
ORCID
Venue
World Politics
Publisher
Project MUSE
Published
1997-01
Volume
49
Issue
2
Pages
155-183
ISSN
  • 0043-8871 (ISSN-L)
  • 1086-3338
DOI
10.1353/wp.1997.0004
OpenAlex
W2041887672
Cited by
1,983
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 66 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 101 · 2020: 103 · 2019: 152 · 2018: 90 · 2017: 51 · 2016: 63 · 2015: 78 · 2014: 86 · 2013: 89 · 2012: 90
FWCI
129.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 5276 d)
Locations
  • World Politics (publishedVersion)
  • Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Corruption and Economic Development
Keywords
modernization, democracy, democratic stability, economic development, prosperity, regime survival, tipping points, dictatorship, Southern Cone, Latin America

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