Abstract
This article conducts a cross-national analysis of forty sub-Saharan African countries during the years 1960-1992. It examines the long-run relationship between political democracy and economic growth, taking advantage of the availability of large economic and political data sets. The conclusion from this study is that the economy grows faster under a regime that enjoys a higher level of institutionalized democracy. It is also found that a positive feedback relationship exists between democracy and growth; while democracy promotes growth, growth leads to a higher level of democratization. In addition, it is found that the duration of authoritarian rule decreases economic growth, while growth shortens the tenure of an autocratic government. Other factors that account for growth in sub-Saharan African countries include the initial size of the economy, human capital stocks, domestic investment share, and international trade.
Subject
Economics and Econometrics,Cultural Studies
Reference70 articles.
1. Bollen and Jackman hold that democracy should be measured ordinally, rather than dichotomously so as to avoid blurring the distinction between borderline cases. See Kenneth A. Bollen and Robert W. Jackman, “Democracy, Stability, and Dichotomies,”American Sociological Review, vol. 54, no. 4 (1989): 612–621. In this article, the use of the ordinal variable of democracy is complemented by using the average year of authoritarian rule, which is constructed from a categorical variable of autocracy.
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