In the middle of the twentieth century S.M. Lipset sustained that various indicators of economic development were higher in democratic countries than in authoritarian ones, suggesting that development was as a condition to democracy. More recently, though, several authors have shown that there is no strong empirical evidence confirming development as a condition to democracy, suggesting in turn that the economic is not as important in democratization as it seemed in the 1950s. Despite this fact, there are some clues that indicate that economic factors do play an important role in democratization, but in a way different than that proposed by Lipset. In this article a revision of literature on some economic obstacles to democratization in Africa is carried out, its main conclusion being that underdevelopment decisively contributes to the difficulties many African countries experience in democratizing. One should not mistake underdevelopment with unadevelopment though, the latter being the mere absence or delay in development and the former a specific supporting role given to developing countries within the global development process. The article?s general conclusion, therefore, is that democratic development is not a question of getting richer, i.e. intensifying the development model, as much as of reforming this same model.
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Paper provided by University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal) in its series CEFAGE-UE Working Papers with number
2008_06.
Find related papers by JEL classification: A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order; Noneconomic International Organizations;; Economic Integration and Globalization: General F50 - International Economics - - International Relations and International Political Economy - - - General F54 - International Economics - - International Relations and International Political Economy - - - Colonialism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government O10 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General O17 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
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Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A & Yared, Pierre, 2005.
"Income and Democracy,"
CEPR Discussion Papers
5273, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James Robinson & Pierre Yared, 2005.
"Income and Democracy,"
NBER Working Papers
11205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)