IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/jecper/v7y1993i3p51-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Political Regimes and Economic Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Adam Przeworski
  • Fernando Limongi

Abstract

Does democracy in the political realm foster or hinder economic growth? Our discussion of this question begins with a review of arguments in favor of, and against, democracy. Then we summarize statistical studies in which political regime is included among determinants of growth and identify some methodological problems entailed in such studies. The conclusion is that social scientists know surprisingly little: our guess is that political institutions do matter for growth, but thinking in terms of regimes does not seem to capture the relevant differences.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Przeworski & Fernando Limongi, 1993. "Political Regimes and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 51-69, Summer.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:7:y:1993:i:3:p:51-69
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.7.3.51
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.7.3.51
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kormendi, Roger C. & Meguire, Philip G., 1985. "Macroeconomic determinants of growth: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 141-163, September.
    2. Alberto Alesina & Dani Rodrik, 1994. "Distributive Politics and Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 109(2), pages 465-490.
    3. Ronald Findlay, 1990. "THE NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY: ITS EXPLANATORY POWER FOR LDCs," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(2), pages 193-221, July.
    4. Neubauer, Deane E., 1967. "Some Conditions of Democracy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(4), pages 1002-1009, December.
    5. Robert J. Barro, 1991. "A Cross-Country Study of Growth, Saving, and Government," NBER Chapters, in: National Saving and Economic Performance, pages 271-304, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Rodrik, Dani, 1992. "Political economy and development policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(2-3), pages 329-336, April.
    7. Olson, Mancur, 1963. "Rapid Growth as a Destabilizing Force," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(4), pages 529-552, December.
    8. Walter Galenson & Harvey Leibenstein, 1955. "Investment Criteria, Productivity, and Economic Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 343-370.
    9. Helliwell, John F., 1994. "Empirical Linkages Between Democracy and Economic Growth," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 225-248, April.
    10. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 1991. "Is Inequality Harmful for Growth? Theory and Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 581, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Heckman, James J, 1978. "Dummy Endogenous Variables in a Simultaneous Equation System," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(4), pages 931-959, July.
    12. Przeworski, Adam & Wallerstein, Michael, 1988. "Structural Dependence of the State on Capital," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(1), pages 11-29, March.
    13. North, Douglass C. & Weingast, Barry R., 1989. "Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 803-832, December.
    14. Grier, Kevin B. & Tullock, Gordon, 1989. "An empirical analysis of cross-national economic growth, 1951-1980," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 259-276, September.
    15. Abbas Pourgerami, 1988. "The political economy of development: A cross-national causality test of development-democracy-growth hypothesis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 123-141, August.
    16. Bardhan, Pranab, 1990. "Symposium on the State and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 3-7, Summer.
    17. Raaj Kumar Sah, 1991. "Fallibility in Human Organizations and Political Systems," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 67-88, Spring.
    18. Dick, G William, 1974. "Authoritarian versus Nonauthoritarian Approaches to Economic Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(4), pages 817-827, July/Aug..
    19. Westphal, Larry E, 1990. "Industrial Policy in an Export-Propelled Economy: Lessons from South Korea's Experience," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 41-59, Summer.
    20. Lee, Lung-Fei, 1978. "Unionism and Wage Rates: A Simultaneous Equations Model with Qualitative and Limited Dependent Variables," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 19(2), pages 415-433, June.
    21. Reynolds, Lloyd G, 1983. "The Spread of Economic Growth to the Third World: 1850-1980," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 941-980, September.
    22. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    23. Landau, Daniel, 1986. "Government and Economic Growth in the Less Developed Countries: An Empirical Study for 1960-1980," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 35-75, October.
    24. Ross M. Stolzenberg & Daniel A. Relles, 1990. "Theory Testing in a World of Constrained Research Design," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 18(4), pages 395-415, May.
    25. Richard Zeckhauser (ed.), 1991. "Strategy and Choice," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262240335, December.
    26. Scully, Gerald W, 1988. "The Institutional Framework and Economic Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(3), pages 652-662, June.
    27. Gary S. Becker, 1983. "A Theory of Competition Among Pressure Groups for Political Influence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 98(3), pages 371-400.
    28. Crain, W Mark, 1977. "On the Structure and Stability of Political Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(4), pages 829-842, August.
    29. Wittman, Donald, 1989. "Why Democracies Produce Efficient Results," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1395-1424, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohtadi, Hamid & Roe, Terry L., 2003. "Democracy, rent seeking, public spending and growth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 445-466, March.
    2. Mohtadi, Hamid & Roe, Terry L., 1997. "Democracy, rent seeking, and growth: Is there a U curve?," Bulletins 7485, University of Minnesota, Economic Development Center.
    3. Dennis Ridley & Aryanne de Silva, 2020. "Game Theoretic Choices Between Corrupt Dictatorship Exit Emoluments and Nation-Building CDR Benefits: Is There a Nash Equilibrium?," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 65(1), pages 51-77, March.
    4. Mishra, Sudhanshu K, 2018. "A Simultaneous Equation Model of Globalization, Corruption, Democracy, Human Development and Social Progress," MPRA Paper 84213, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Mishra, SK, 2017. "Are Democratic Regimes Antithetical to Globalization?," MPRA Paper 83321, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Dennis Ridley, 2021. "Capitalism/Democracy/Rule of Law Interactions and Implications for Entrepreneurship and Per Capita Real Gross Domestic Product Adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(1), pages 384-411, March.
    7. Gupta, Dipak K. & Madhavan, M. C. & Blee, Andrew, 1998. "Democracy, economic growth and political instability: An integrated perspective," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 587-611.
    8. Claude Diebolt & Tapas Mishra & Bazoumana Ouattara & Mamata Parhi, 2010. "Does democratic distance matter for cross-country growth interdependence?," Working Papers 10-12, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC).
    9. Renelt, David, 1991. "Economic growth : a review of the theoretical and empirical literature," Policy Research Working Paper Series 678, The World Bank.
    10. Celal Kucuker, 2003. "Türkiye Ýktisat Kongresi Büyüme Stratejileri Çalýþma Grubu," Working Papers 2003/5, Turkish Economic Association.
    11. KIRMANOGLU Hasan, 2010. "Political Freedom and Economic Well-being: A Causality Analysis," EcoMod2003 330700081, EcoMod.
    12. M. Adnan Kabir & Najib Alam, 2021. "The Efficacy of Democracy and Freedom in Fostering Economic Growth," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 7(1), pages 76-93, May.
    13. Liu, Wai-Man & Ngo, Phong, 2020. "Voting with your feet: Political competition and internal migration in the United States," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    14. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Mehmet Ugur & Siew Ling Yew, 2017. "Does Government Size Affect Per-Capita Income Growth? A Hierarchical Meta-Regression Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(300), pages 142-171, March.
    15. Alberto Ades, 1995. "Economic Development With Endogenous Political Participation," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 93-117, July.
    16. Arvanitidis, Paschalis & Petrakos, George & Pavleas, Sotiris, 2007. "Determinants of economic growth: the experts’ view," Papers DYNREG20, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    17. Herath, Shanaka, 2009. "The Size of the Government and Economic Growth. An Empirical Study of Sri Lanka," SRE-Discussion Papers 2009/08, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    18. Alesina, Alberto & Özler, Sule & Roubini, Nouriel & Swagel, Phillip, 1996. "Political Instability and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 189-211, June.
    19. Nilofer, Nilofer & Qayyum, Abdul, 2018. "Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Growth in Pakistan: The ARDL Approach," MPRA Paper 86961, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.
    20. Levine, Ross & Renelt, David, 1991. "Cross-country studies of growth and policy : methodological, conceptual, and statistical problems," Policy Research Working Paper Series 608, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:7:y:1993:i:3:p:51-69. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.