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Cited by 7,050Political Theory and DemocracyPolitical Conflict and GovernanceElectoral Systems and Political Participation

Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy

Lipset, Seymour Martin·1959·American Political Science Review
DOI 10.2307/1951731
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Abstract

The conditions associated with the existence and stability of democratic society have been a leading concern of political philosophy. In this paper the problem is attacked from a sociological and behavioral standpoint, by presenting a number of hypotheses concerning some social requisites for democracy, and by discussing some of the data available to test these hypotheses. In its concern with conditions—values, social institutions, historical events—external to the political system itself which sustain different general types of political systems, the paper moves outside the generally recognized province of political sociology. This growing field has dealt largely with the internal analysis of organizations with political goals, or with the determinants of action within various political institutions, such as parties, government agencies, or the electoral process. It has in the main left to the political philosopher the larger concern with the relations of the total political system to society as a whole.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.2307/1951731

Cites

66 of 66 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • There is a strong causal connection between economic well-being and chances of success of democratization.

    “Pioneering works (Lipset, 1959) have noted on the other hand a strong causal connection between economic well-being and chances of success of democratization.”

    From Transitional justice and democratic consolidation in post-communist Eastern Europe: Romania and Albania (2021) · cites this paper as Lipset, 1959

  • 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 Lipset (1959)

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Authors
Lipset, S. M.
Affiliations
University of California, Berkeley (US)
Corresponding author
Lipset, Seymour Martin
Venue
American Political Science Review
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
1959-03
Volume
53
Issue
1
Pages
69-105
ISSN
  • 0003-0554 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5943
DOI
10.2307/1951731
OpenAlex
W2125353502
Cited by
7,050
References
66
Citations by year
2026: 228 · 2025: 316 · 2024: 310 · 2023: 316 · 2022: 383 · 2021: 342 · 2020: 475 · 2019: 383 · 2018: 392 · 2017: 275 · 2016: 260 · 2015: 277 · 2014: 288 · 2013: 280 · 2012: 271
FWCI
110.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 19567 d)
Locations
  • American Political Science Review (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
Keywords
economic development, political legitimacy, democratic stability, political system, social institutions, political philosophy, political sociology

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