The role of middle class in democratic diffusion
© 2015 Elsevier Inc. The modernization hypothesis and the democratic domino theory have been at the forefront in explaining the democratization around the globe. This paper empirically investigates the ‘middle class-driven modernization’ hypothesis and the ‘middle class-driven democratic domino’...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
ELSEVIER
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056015001719 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80694 |
| Summary: | © 2015 Elsevier Inc.
The modernization hypothesis and the democratic domino theory have been at the forefront in explaining the democratization around the globe. This paper empirically investigates the ‘middle class-driven modernization’ hypothesis and the ‘middle class-driven democratic domino’ effect in a panel of 145 countries over the period 1985 to 2013. Using several middle class measures and a dynamic panel estimator, we show that the ‘middle class-driven modernization’ hypothesis finds strong empirical support in the sample of developing countries excluding Eastern Europe and Central Asia, while the ‘middle class-driven democratic domino’ effect finds support in the sample of developing countries excluding East Asia and the Pacific. |
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