The Effects of International Trade on Democracy: A Panel Study of the Post-Soviet World-System

Abstract

The author examines the relationship between democracy and international trade using post-Soviet countries as a historical example of a world-system. World-systems theory and alternative theories are employed to create theoretical models of democracy, and pooled timeseries regression is applied, using an index of democracy as the dependent variable and two sets of theoretically distinct control variables. The author finds a negative relationship between core periphery trade and democracy and a positive relationship between trade openness and democracy in the periphery. The author draws three conclusions. First, international trade deserves more attention as a link between economic and political processes in world-systems analysis. Second, contrary to conventional analysis, the structure of core-periphery trade shows that the core uses its economic ties to politically exploit the periphery. Last, it is necessary to distinguish between core and noncore international trade in world-systems and political analysis.